A SENSE of doom and gloom takes flight each winter as bird-watchers in Tasmania contemplate the fate of the shorebirds they waved off on migration at the end of the Tasmanian summer. Fewer and fewer of the shorebirds that travel all the way from Tasmania’s wetlands to breed within the Arctic Circle are returning each year to spend the summer here, as they have done for millennia. A staggering decrease in some numbers of shorebirds has been known to members of BirdLife … [Read more...] about Curlews lost to the wind
Archives for July 2012
White goshawk having a whale of a time
The white goshawk flew in wide spirals, catching the thermals rising from the sun-drenched lowlands between sea and mountain. The goshawk had come into view as I scanned the far-flung ocean looking for, of all things, whales. The Mercury had reported in recent days that the whale season was underway with about 60 humpback and southern right whale sightings. It might have seemed a little fanciful to climb up to Sphinx Rock on the south-east side of Mt Wellington looking to … [Read more...] about White goshawk having a whale of a time
Hair of the fox
Don Bentley sprawled out under the spreading boughs of a stringybark gum. He had a bottle of Barking Owl shiraz and a ham and cheese sandwich and was seeking a quiet moment to himself on his day off from work: a spot of lunch and a few glasses of good red, the birds singing around him, spring in the air. It had been an impossibly hard week at the Chronicle newspaper and he needed to chill out. Bentley didn’t even take a book or a newspaper up to the Waterworks Reserve in … [Read more...] about Hair of the fox
Bruny bird festival takes flight again
Bird festivals have become an international phenomenon in recent years but there is only one that can lay claim to having an endangered bird literally on its doorstep. The Bruny Island Bird Festival might not be the biggest - that honour goes to Birdfair in Britain which attracts more than 20,000 birders annually – but it can boast not just lectures and bird tours, but a sighting of the forty-spotted pardalote. “Forty-spot” is one of the rarest birds in world with its … [Read more...] about Bruny bird festival takes flight again
Referee with goals of his own
As a football referee, Tristan Turner flouted the convention that the man in the middle should be unobtrusive and anonymous in ensuring the smooth passage of play. During games, Tristan Turner would dig the toes of his Adidas football boots into the muddy turf and fling up his arms in an extravagant gesture in the style of Rudolph Nureyev. Turner brought ballet to soccer, explaining that the game was ethereal, it floated across the turf untroubled by physical contact, … [Read more...] about Referee with goals of his own