Do birds find me, or do I find them? I’ve never been able to work it out but it seems no matter where I go, in the most unlikely of places, interesting species turn up. This thought came to mind on a rare non-birding outing when I took the recently-launched MR-1 ferry to the Museum of Old and New Art at Berriedale. Until that time, I must have been the only person in Tasmania not to have visited MONA. “And you can leave the binoculars at home, this is going to be a day … [Read more...] about
Freckled sighting a rare joy
I put my twitcher’s hat on recently and went in search of one of Australia’s rarest ducks, and certainly the rarest to be seen in Tasmanian waters. The birding wires were running hot at the end of March with the sighting of four freckled ducks at Gould’s Lagoon at Austins Ferry. My twitching days are long behind me and I don’t usually go in search of birds merely to “tick” in a notebook, the first for a city or state list, or even country. “Plenty of freckled … [Read more...] about Freckled sighting a rare joy
Chill winds call migrants north
The dusky woodswallows were active and twitchy, soaring into the sky to snatch at the last of the summer’s flying insects. In the upper bare branches of a dead gum they were joined by tree martins. The two species jockeyed for position, the martins coming off worst. When a woodswallow returned from a sortie, the smaller martins had to make way for it. Perhaps it was just me, but I sensed the two species were looking north as autumn got seriously underway, they certainly … [Read more...] about Chill winds call migrants north
The road to recovery
A young currawong called Pea is out and about in the wide and wild world, spreading his wings. Occasionally he calls to his “foster parents”, the loving carers who set him on the road to recovery after he was found sick and abandoned, but Pea is determined to go it alone without human intervention. I heard about Pea a few months ago when Rachel Meyers of Southern Wildlife Rescue and Care emailed to say that among a batch of nestlings that she had been handed was a baby … [Read more...] about The road to recovery
Help for forty-spot nesters
The Tasmanian culture of the shack is taking on a new meaning on Bruny Island– it’s being extended to the holiday island’s population of forty-spotted pardalotes. Bruny residents of the non-feathered kind are being asked to support a scheme to supply the endangered birds with nest-box homes to see them through the breeding season. The program is being co-ordinated by a researcher who has joined the fight to halt the catastrophic decline of the Tasmanian endemic species … [Read more...] about Help for forty-spot nesters