The last of the summer migrants, the beautiful satin flycatchers, have arrived safely this year at the place I always find them in mid-spring, a stretch of white peppermint eucalypt woodland in the Waterworks Reserve. These birds are the most eye-catching of the migrants, the males with a plumage of shimmering satin feathers on their head and backs, set against a silvery-grey on the breast. The females mix grey, ivory and a splash of russet on the throat. The flycatchers … [Read more...] about Satin flycatchers welcomed back
Archives for October 2013
Beauty’s in the brush
THEY say the life of a writer is a lonely one but most days I have the company of a family of green rosellas. My study looks out on a thicket of yellow bottlebrushes and year-round they fossick among the leaves, chewing on the pollen and nectar-laden flowers in spring, or seeds in the autumn. For the rest of the year they merely hang out in the dense foliage, calling merrily to other green rosellas passing overhead. I’ve tried to take pictures of the rosellas but somehow … [Read more...] about Beauty’s in the brush
Hard act to swallow
The phone rang early one morning with an excited David Kernke on the line. He wanted to report that the welcome swallows had arrived back at Shene, the historic property he is restoring with his wife, Anne, at Pontville. I had heard earlier in the year that amid all the restoration work at what is considered one of the most significant homes in Tasmania, if not Australia, a family of swallows had also been left in peace to claim their own piece of heritage. The craftsmen … [Read more...] about Hard act to swallow
A room with a view
My investment in a modest Bruny Island property appears to be paying dividends. The property might be small without “mod cons” but the tenants occupying it are more than happy. No sooner had they moved in to Box 10, Waterview Hill on North Bruny, they decided to start a family and already I have gone from landlord to de facto grandparent, eagerly awaiting the chance to see the offspring. The one-bedroomed shack might be small but it nestles in what an estate agent would … [Read more...] about A room with a view