Archives for October 2018

Two wedge-tailed eagles soared high in the sky as supporters of the Raptor and Wildlife Refuge of Tasmania gathered to mark another milestone in the organisation’s history. The refuge’s founder, Craig Webb, announced the launch of a dedicated 24-hour hotline on which members of the public could report injured and dead raptors. Despite being given endangered status, eagle numbers in Tasmania are under severe threat. There are only about 100 nesting pairs in the state and … [Read more...] about Eagle hotline takes flight

The Bruny Island Bird Festival took place of the weekend of October 19-22 , showcasing what Bruny Islanders describe as the “birdwatching capital of Tasmania”. This might sound like a bit of an exaggeration but the four festivals so far since the event’s inception in 2010 have certainly attracted large numbers of both mainland and international birdwatchers. And in the past two years Bruny birding “hotspot” status has been further enhanced by the twin Bruny islands also … [Read more...] about Bruny flies high

The pastel-yellow flowers of bottlebrushes swaying in the breeze, and clinging to them, silvereyes. The silvereyes perform like tiny acrobatics on the trapeze, hanging upside down at times, before letting go, righting themselves in mid-flight and then reaching out with their claws to grab another cluster of flowers. I watch the silvereyes performing their manoeuvres for hours, I should be working at the computer terminal in my study – writing bird columns and other articles … [Read more...] about Wildlife haven close to home

It’s magpie attack time and the birds with a beautiful flute-like song join plovers as public enemy number one in spring, if only for a short time. The menace of plovers – also called masked lapwings – were the subject of the column last week and now I turn my attention to a far more dangerous threat, magpies. As I reported, plovers are all bluster when they dive-bomb people near their nesting sites and rarely come into contact with the unsuspecting target. Magpies, on … [Read more...] about Magpies on the attack