“Birds mean business.” A slogan like that sounds as though it comes from Madison Avenue, fresh from a script for Mad Men, one of my favourite television shows centred in the advertising world in the United States. The slogan was not penned, in fact, by a slick adman on the street of shame, but is being promoted by a group of New Yorkers whose natural habitat is situated as far away from the heart of the American advertising industry as you can get. “Birds mean business” … [Read more...] about Start spreading the word
Passing the nest test
Some wild weather in early autumn with stronger winds than usual brought me up close and personal with some of nature’s most incredible creations. I’m talking birds’ nests or more precisely caliology, the name given to their scientific study. It seemed that one afternoon when high winds were rocking the trees above me on the lower slopes of Mt Wellington it was raining nests. The large, bulky structure of a grey currawong’s nest landed at my feet on a mountain trail, I came … [Read more...] about Passing the nest test
Beauty amid the bullets
“The larks are singing beautifully and today I saw the first swallow this season…” The words describe a magical moment that could be any spring day in rural Tasmania. They paint a vivid picture: a clear, impossibly blue sky, a fluttering skylark high above, its sweet song cascading from the heavens and drifting across field and paddock. And the swallows carry the promise of summer on their wings. The words were, in fact, penned by a 25-year soldier, Maurice Charles … [Read more...] about Beauty amid the bullets
Alarm birds keeps watch
I went in search of the hiding place of the notorious bushranger Rocky Whelan on Mount Wellington one crisp and clear autumnal morning and it was appropriate that a Tasmanian scrubwren should lead me there. In times past the scrubwren made its home among the bushrangers, the murders and thieves who terrorised Tasmania’s citizens, aiding and abetting them in their efforts to escape the law. The little bird was dubbed the “alarm bird” by the early settlers because it warned … [Read more...] about Alarm birds keeps watch
Riding the Devil’s Highway
Tasmania might be known internationally as the home of the Hollywood cartoon character, Taz, based on the real-life Tasmanian devil, but the island state has another claim to fame. It is also the roadkill capital of the world, with one animal killed every two minutes on the bitumen, among them the endangered Tasmanian devil. With so much roadkill on view, Tasmanians joke ironically that perhaps a glass-bottomed bus tour should be added to the tourist itinerary and Donald … [Read more...] about Riding the Devil’s Highway