Archives for May 2021

High up in a crack willow a white goshawk tore at a mouse it had just snatched from a chicken coop, making the most of its meal. It was the first white goshawk I had seen all year in the Waterworks Valley where I live and the sighting should have been a cause for celebration. Instead, I was filled with dread in the knowledge that rodents frequenting homes and farms can sometimes carry mice and rat poisons devastating to wildlife. By coincidence, two days after spotting the … [Read more...] about Rat poison poses danger to raptors

To employ a totally over-used pun when it comes to bird-watching, I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone by joining the great swift parrot hunt on the mainland this autumn. I had missed out on seeing swift parrots in Tasmania – the only place they nest – last breeding season and so I thought I’d seize the opportunity of finding them in their winter habitat on the south-eastern mainland. At the same time, I’d do a little bit of citizen science by adding to a census on … [Read more...] about The great swift parrot hunt

The ornate room in City Hall seemed a long way from the bucolic beauty of the Waterworks Valley. And the speech I was about to deliver to a meeting of the City of Hobart’s planning committee was a long way from the arcane language of development matters. Instead of discussing discretionary uses, zones and permits I had decided to speak on behalf of the birds. I would be their representative in a hearing devoted to a proposal to build a cluster of houses on a leafy block … [Read more...] about Speaking on behalf of the birds

Birdwatchers use a term with ANZAC roots – Jizz – to identify birds that at first sight may look similar. The acronym is actually GISS (General Impression of Shape and Size) and this was a vital aid in helping the Diggers and Australian air and naval crews distinguish between Japanese planes and those of the allies during the Second World War. In birding terms, the more informal Jizz helps to separate similar species by focusing less on shape and markings and more on … [Read more...] about Birds and all that ‘jizz’

The New Zealand travel bubble might have started to much fanfare but for some trans-Tasman travellers it has never applied. A small shorebird from New Zealand, the double-banded plover, has not only defied travel restrictions, it has defied the laws of migration which generally sees birds travel north in autumn. The New Zealand waders travel in the opposite direction, from alpine areas on that country’s South Island to Tasmanian shores. From about April to September, … [Read more...] about Double trouble for plovers