Don Knowler

A cassowary in the rear-view mirror of my car. It’s one of my most bizarre bird experiences, almost as incredible an encounter with the bird itself. The southern cassowary sighting occurred while I was leaving Mission Beach in far-north Queensland after abandoning a search for the elusive species. After hours of hunting, I had drawn a blank in areas known for cassowary sightings and decided to head back to Townsville, where I lived at the time. No sooner had I hit the … [Read more...] about Cassowaries dodge traffic – with help of AI

The morning television news reported gangland violence in Melbourne and Sydney. Closer to home, trouble stirred in my own backyard. A family of magpies – pushing out black-and-white breasts like in-your-face Collingwood supporters – had arrived in the ’hood. To say they had caused a flurry of feathers would be an under-statement. The usual standover merchants in the neighbourhood, the forest ravens and grey currawongs, resisted at first but then stood aside. The magpie army … [Read more...] about Magpie trouble in the ‘hood

They say familiarity breeds contempt and each spring I certainly feel a little antagonistic towards the masked lapwings which prove a nuisance on my walks. It’s a familiar story. We all know in the suburbs and outer suburbs what it is like to be buzzed by the lapwings, commonly called plovers in Tasmania. In fact the birds, despite having yellow spurs on their wings, are incapable of causing injury, it just appears that way when they swoop with noisy menace if people stray … [Read more...] about Lapwings ruffle feathers in spring

I was hoping to make an important announcement at the Waterworks community’s annual lantern parade which each year marks the end of winter. “The fan-tailed cuckoos are back,” I was hoping to shout to cheers as I sipped a mug of mulled wine. It was not to be. Usually the fan-tailed cuckoos, my harbinger of spring, turn up towards the end of August but this year they let me down although another early migratory species, the striated pardalote, had already arrived in good … [Read more...] about Migrants delay their celebration of spring

A persistent, noisy tapping on a window of my home woke me at daybreak. “Tap, tap, tap”. I followed the sound as I searched the rooms of the house before finally coming to the window of my study overlooking the leafy back garden. There I saw a male blackbird banging its beak against the window pain. As I approached it flew off, startled, but it was soon back. After I had retreated to the bedroom to go back to sleep he started up again. He was at it all morning, all … [Read more...] about Macho blackbird gets a shock