Don Knowler

I received a phone call from the Mercury during the late summer asking me if I could identify a young bird that had been photographed by staff photographer Sam Rosewarne. When the image arrived I could not only name the species positively but the precise location where the picture was taken. It just so happened that I had been monitoring the very nest that had produced the youngster. I had to confess that if I hadn’t seen the chick in question grow from a grey, downy … [Read more...] about Sparrowhawks at home in the suburbs

Rain lashed against my bedroom window but that was not to deter me from the annual Birdlife Tasmania shorebird count. I checked my phone before leaving and there was no message to say the count had been called off, so I was on my way. The organisation has been counting birds around Tasmania’s shores for half a century and this data has already proven invaluable in assessing shorebird numbers, and drawing up strategies for their protection. I was determined to play my part. … [Read more...] about Count on a shore thing

RAIN lashed the Lauderdale Oval, but a band of nature-lovers and a white-faced heron were not to be deterred.  Wind and rain seemed appropriate for the excursion on this occasion. The object of the summer exercise was after all the study of probably the most neglected and misunderstood environment in the world of nature: the saltmarsh. Born of storm and tide, it’s a vital habitat for fish, birds and insects so who was complaining about a little rain. Amid welcome swallows … [Read more...] about Salt of the earth

Thunder in the mountain, it sounded like the opening lyric of a Bob Dylan song. I should be seeking shelter, in a cave and not under a tree. I stood in the open, however, my eyes on the heavens. It was just the sort of storm front that would bring with it the mysterious and magical white-throated needletail swift. That or the rising hot air from a bush fire. The swifts breed in Asia and migrate to Australia for our summer, guaranteeing a supply of their flying-insect prey … [Read more...] about Swiftly through the skies

A sprig of cornflower – the intense blue of its flower illuminating the darkest of spaces on Melbourne’s rattling trams – accompanied me on a magical mystery tour of that city’s hidden corners last month. My trips to Victoria might not always be about nature but all the same I can’t resist pausing to watch bird species we don’t find in Hobart, like magpie-larks on grassy roundabouts at busy city intersections, or red wattlebirds chasing smaller honeyeater species away from … [Read more...] about A meadow in the city