Don Knowler

New Holland honeyeaters form the Neighbourhood Watch for the community of birds on my street. With rapid tweets they are quick to warn of the menace of the sparrowhawk and it is not only the other honeyeaters who know their call. The fairy-wrens and scarlet robins also seek shelter in the thickly-packed grevilleas out of harm’s way when they hear the alarm call. My citizen science observations tell me there are two distinct honeyeater alarm calls – soft, short tweets that … [Read more...] about Honeyeaters on neighbourhood watch

The frosts came late to my home valley this year, but they prompted the same response when I saw the white coating on the lawn and an icy sparkle on the street beyond our drive: “What am I doing here?” As I warmed my hands by the log fire, I lamented not joining the Tasmanian migration to Queensland to enjoy some warm weather there. The mournful, melancholy winter song of the resident silvereyes coming from the frozen, rigid bottlebrushes seemed to be saying the same … [Read more...] about Silvereyes leave winter behind them

Being an animal carer can have its rewards, as a nature-lover who lives in my neighbourhood discovered when a magpie she had cared for came to call. Not just the magpie but her first off-spring. The female magpie had been reared to adulthood after it was brought to the carer as a fledgling. It had been found lying on the ground, and the person finding the skinny ball of feather and bone could not determine if it had fallen out of a nest, or had left the nest too early … [Read more...] about Magpie flies in to say thanks

Love is in the air. The John Paul Young song rings in my head every time I see flocks of sulphur-crested cockatoos flying over my home. The cockies are noisy and chatty in flight and when I catch up with them a little later at the Waterworks Reserve the males are showing off their striking yellow crests to females, perched in the upper branches of the stately blue gums. I have always taken the antics of the cocky cockatoos at face value but during the COVID-19 lockdown I … [Read more...] about Cockies find love in the treetops

“You’ve really started something,” said my wife, nervously eyeing nine black currawongs, who were in turn eyeing her through the kitchen window. The currawongs were lined up on the windowsill, fixing her with their mad, bright yellow eyes. Two were tapping on the closed window, another pecking at the putty holding the pane in place. It was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s horror movie of the 1960s, The Birds. My wife soon ended the performance, pulling down the blind. … [Read more...] about ‘Boyz’ cause mayhem in the hood