I’m sitting on a bench looking up at kunanyi/Mount Wellington, the peak wreathed in the fine blue haze of eucalypt oils which ooze from blue gums and stringybarks on hot days. The mountain has the hue of the satin flycatcher. The gums on Mount Wellington might cement time and place in Tasmania, but I’m not thinking of this island state at the tip of Australia, next stop Antarctica, and the things you see from a park bench there; butterflies and birds with names like the … [Read more...] about A memory carried on fragile wings
Parrot in swift flight to oblivion
Bird-watching is worth more than $280 million each year to the Australian economy and for this reason Birdlife Australia says it makes sense to protect our birds. This time last year the birding organisation set out to put a price on the heads of the birds in economic terms and found in its survey that the birding bonanza largely benefitted regional communities where the more uncommon species were found. The finding of the economic survey were very much in my thoughts when … [Read more...] about Parrot in swift flight to oblivion
Birds in tune with human music
The song of the European cuckoo rang out through the rafters of St James’ Church Hall on Elizabeth St last month, filling the air with the curious two-note refrain that has inspired musicians over the centuries. This time it was the Hobart Guitar Society mimicking the bird, performing Going Cuckoo by modern British composer, Andrew Forrest. Usually I’m more likely to be found listening to a pub band, but the promise of the song of a bird I remember fondly from my youth in … [Read more...] about Birds in tune with human music
Chattering rosellas a link to the Anzac story
An eastern rosella sat on a WWI memorial plinth, surrounded by his chattering flock who were plucking seeds from the grass of the Solders Memorial Avenue on the Queens Domain. It so just happened to be Anzac Day but I had not gone to the solders’ walk to honour the fallen in the Great War. My aim had been to observe the antics of the rosellas, birds I do not see closer to home in the Waterworks Valley. The parrot sat on the plinth honouring Segreant Frank Bennett and … [Read more...] about Chattering rosellas a link to the Anzac story
‘Sad’ robin with nothing to sing about
It’s called the “sad robin” and it has reason to feel as sombre as its drab, uninspiring plumage. It may be a member of the colourful robin family but by its dull appearance you would never know it. The family name of robin evokes an image of shimmering, flaming red breasts; the sad, or dusky robin, however, comes clothed in brown-grey with not a hint of colour. And it’s also bigger and less dainty, spritely, compared with the other three Tasmanian robins, the scarlet, the … [Read more...] about ‘Sad’ robin with nothing to sing about