It was a slice of coastal Australia, a boat ramp under the watchful eye of a pelican, a picture-postcard yellow beach and a nearby stretch of marshland ringing to the cries of shorebirds. I stumbled on the spot when I washed up in South Werribee one early-winter weekend while searching for orange-bellied parrots on their Victorian wintering grounds. I drew a blank with the parrot but found a piece of paradise instead, a wild corner of Australia fighting not to be totally … [Read more...] about Pelican keeps watch over a magical place
Investigators crack massive case of birds’ egg theft
I thought collecting birds’ eggs was a thing of the past, confined to the dark side of natural history. So I was shocked to read in the Mercury a few weeks ago that federal wildlife officials had cracked a massive case of wildlife trafficking involving eggs. The seizure of more than 3000 eggs from a Hobart home made national headlines with investigators tracking the source and market for the eggs, believed to include endangered Tasmanian species such as the forty-spotted … [Read more...] about Investigators crack massive case of birds’ egg theft
Stunned by a flash of light
It’s the most spectacular of Tasmania’s birds. A gem of a creature which sparkles and shines as it dashes about the state’s West Coast waterways. The azure kingfisher has always been in my sights but for years I had not had the opportunity to search for it, beyond a cursory hunt along the banks of the Gordon River out of Strahan one summer. Now the hunt was on in Bathurst Harbour in the far south-west with tourist cruise operator, Pieter van der Woude, whom I think was as … [Read more...] about Stunned by a flash of light
A song of sadness rises from the woods
Although the early bird is said to catch the worm, it was not be at the Waterworks Reserve a few weeks ago. I’m usually a late starter but I had set out ultra-early to do some reconnaissance for a pair of American birders who wanted to see some of our endemic species. I had in mind both the beautiful and the curious, like the green rosella and the “turbo-chook”, the Tasmanian native-hen, but I was soon stopped in my tracks by a possible sighting of one of the less … [Read more...] about A song of sadness rises from the woods
Tasmanian emu consigned to pages of history
The swift parrot flew in its hundreds of thousands when the Mercury first hit the streets of Hobart 170 years ago this month. The white gums on the Domain were alive with the now endangered forty-spotted pardalote and, over the river on the eastern shore, the Tasmanian emu dodged hunting parties across the coastal plains of Rokeby before becoming extinct. The Mercury has been celebrating its 170th milestone and the replica pages produced by the newspaper have revealed how … [Read more...] about Tasmanian emu consigned to pages of history