Don Knowler

Birdwatchers on the mainland have been conducting what can be described as a “mission impossible” this winter to track down the last of the orange-bellied parrots.  The coastlines of Victoria and South Australia have been the subject of the search to locate the mere handful of the parrots that have migrated from their breeding grounds in southern Tasmania to spend the winter on mainland coastal saltmarshes. There are believed to be fewer than 50 orange-bellied parrots alive … [Read more...] about ‘Mission impossible’ to find tiny parrot

A STRIATED pardalote is hopefully winging its way back to Bruny Island after receiving a helping hand from conservationists there last breeding season after it fell from a nest. The pardalote received some tender, loving care from Wildcare volunteers at the historic Bruny Island Quarantine Station after they found it in trouble just before Christmas. Volunteer caretakers at the quarantine station on South Bruny, Lyn Donald and Kel Callaghan, said “a little ball of fluff’’ … [Read more...] about A wing and a prayer

The song of summer floated across the valley where I live last month, even though there was snow on Mt Wellington.  The song belonged to a fan-tailed cuckoo and I awoke with a shock. The avid birdwatcher is very attuned to bird song and it is not the first time that I have been woken from my slumbers at first light when, subconsciously in sleep, I have hard something strange and exotic. But a cuckoo in the middle of winter – July 24 to be precise – had me scurrying into the … [Read more...] about Summer comes early

The seasons come and go, as do plumbers, decorators and gardeners but a pair of tawny frogmouths which have made a suburban patio their home take everything in their stride, or should I say their wingbeats. I’m constantly on the look-out for frogmouths in the dry woodlands surrounding Hobart but increasingly in recent years I have found these remarkable birds in the most remarkable of “habitat” away from their natural homes. In fact, the frogmouths of the wider Hobart area … [Read more...] about Winging it in suburbia

A battle to save Australia’s last mainland colony of fairy penguins is being fought on the beaches of Manly in Sydney. Where once there were probably tens of thousands of penguins around Australia’s south-eastern and southern coastlines only about 60 penguins survive in a few coves at the entrance to Sydney Harbour. I took a time-out from a family reunion in Sydney recently to visit the threatened colony, and draw comparisons with the similar, but less bloody, struggle to … [Read more...] about Penguin issue in black and white