The clarion call to prepare for autumn came this year from the yellow-throated honeyeaters which make my garden their home. Autumn usually announces itself with a sudden chill in the air at dawn and dusk, the musty smell of vegetation past the sell-by date of summer and a drawing in of light in the early evening. This year, however, the yellowthroats appeared to be in fuller voice than usual. The call – a loud, staccato “tonk, tonk, tonk” – woke me in the early morning and … [Read more...] about Indian summer turns up the heat
The twitcher’s curse
A magpie-lark strutting about the walkways and car park of the marina at Prince of Wales Bay has created a stir in the twitcher-sphere. The sighting in Derwent Park of the species, which is usually seen on the mainland, was first reported by the twitcher’s bible, the Eremaea birdline website, in January and again in person to me when Pieter van der Woude, who runs wildlife cruises to Bathurst Harbour and Port Davey, saw the bird late last month at his mooring at the … [Read more...] about The twitcher’s curse
Wildlife ticket to ride
Bus number 448 sits at is starting point in Hobart, purring, awaiting with door open to take passengers on a magical, mystery tour. Slightly battered and worn, it’s green and cream livery showing Metro wear and tear, the bus and the route it takes is an unlikely metaphor for that place where the natural and the human worlds meet. The bus on route 448 climbs out of Hobart on the hour, winding its way south-west to the base of kunanyi/Mount Wellington. It follows the contours … [Read more...] about Wildlife ticket to ride
Wilderness for sale
Speech to the annual general meeting of the Tasmanian National Parks Association on November 26, 2017. The battle to protect and conserve Tasmania’s pristine wild places was brought home to me within days of arriving in the state from Britain 20 years ago. I was staying with my mother-in-law in Howrah at the time and wandered down to the Shoreline shopping centre where I came across an exhibition being mounted by the Tasmanian Conservation Trust. Peter McGlone, who was … [Read more...] about Wilderness for sale
The beautiful unknown
Among the Willows and Wild Things, the Fingal Valley nature diary of a young girl in the 1930s Ann Page, edited by Margaretta Pos. Reviewed September 14, 2018 In the 1930s schoolgirl Ann Page set out to explore the “beautiful unknown” of the Fingal Valley and eighty years on her daughter, Margaretta Pos, gives us the chance to join her on her adventures. Ann had a nature diary in mind but what she produced was a stunning portrait of the valley, in all its beauty, in … [Read more...] about The beautiful unknown