Don Knowler

The sounds of Christmas – the songs and the tunes associated with the festive season – have a special place in my heart. With most people its Christmas carols and jingles, but when this time of year comes around a song of a bird is firmly fixed in my subconscious. Not surprisingly it is the song of the European robin. As a child growing up in Britain, when I awoke early to open my Christmas presents – too early for my parents – robins were always singing their winter … [Read more...] about Sing a song of Christmas

The magical place I call birdland creeps up on you unexpectedly, like a rare bird which appears to fly out of the blue, from nowhere. Once you’ve been there, you will never forget it. Two years ago it was the realm of the swift parrot on what had been a routine mission to report on a conservation program involving forty-spotted pardalotes on South Bruny Island. This year I was transported to the world of the magnificent peregrine falcon, the fastest creature on earth, which … [Read more...] about A sight for sore eyes

The final pieces of the migration jigsaw still had to be put in place as the “dynamic duo” set off for their latest bird-watching safari at the Waterworks Reserve. The “dynamic duo” comprised myself and well-known birding guide Denis Abbott and, leading a walk as part of the Hobart Council’s Bush Adventures program, we had in our sights two migrant species which had so far eluded us in the spring, the pallid cuckoo and satin flycatcher. The satin flycatcher is traditionally … [Read more...] about Dynamic duo goes cuckoo

A sweet melody told me in early spring that I had ventured into the nesting territory of a pair of Bassian thrushes on Mount Wellington/kunanyi. The song is a resonant one, designed to penetrate thick forest clothed in layers of fern frond and leaf, and without it you would never know the thrushes were about. The same goes for the nest, perfectly camouflaged to merge with the forest, like the Bassian thrush itself. The thrush is seldom seen, preferring to hide among mossy … [Read more...] about Thrush in no rush to be seen

A pair of visiting birdwatchers I met at the Waterworks Reserve in early spring said they had two reasons to visit Tasmania – one was to see the biggest member of the honeyeater family, the yellow wattlebird, and the other to tour the Museum of Old and New Art. The next day they managed to kill two birds with one stone at Berriedale. By chance I saw them again at MONA where I had gone to see the British art house musical London Street, in the museum complex’s cinema. The … [Read more...] about Wattlebirds in the Mona frame