Don Knowler

A low cloud had descended across the Tamar, making a visit to the mighty river’s wetlands pointless.  But every cloud has a silver lining and I was treated instead to a remarkable story with an eagle at its heart.  As I sat in my sister-in-law’s home high above the Tamar Valley north of Launceston, rueing a missed opportunity to stalk the waterbirds at the Tamar Wetlands Reserve, she recounted the time a wedge-tailed eagle came to call. Normally, there’s a view of a dam … [Read more...] about Eagle causes a flap

Mother Nature has packed up her tent and moved on. The passing parade of birdlife over the spring and summer is well past and approaching the end of autumn I can only wait in anticipation of the circus’s magical return in September. At this time of year I can’t resist the metaphor of the big tent to describe all the spectacle, the antics, the comedy and the drama that has played out since early September. The avian circus has acts of all kinds including those of the flying … [Read more...] about The circus leaves town

It took a royal visitor to point out what we in Hobart take for granted – the majestic realm that is the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens. Prince Edward was on a walk-about in the gardens as part of their 200 anniversary and when he stopped to ask a group of locals if they visited the gardens often he was surprised to hear that for one couple it was their first visit. “But the gardens are so special,” he enthused, “You must come more often.” He had a point. As a local … [Read more...] about A haven for bird life, 200 years on

William Boot, the bumbling war correspondent in the satirical novel about journalism, Scoop, and I have much in common. Or so I have been told by readers of “On the wing”. Although I’ve tried to develop the image of a cool, jet-setting journalist – at least during my younger days – I’ve never quite escaped the shadow of William Boot, the nature writer for the Daily Beast who found himself sent to Africa to cover human conflict by mistake. Notebook in hand, sharp pencil at … [Read more...] about Scoop! News from the parrot front

Somewhere out in the great blue yonder a grey fantail is carrying an identification tag which might in time shed new light on the remarkable migration of our birds. The fantail was given a leg band as part of a banding exercise In the Waterworks Reserve late last year, supervised by banding expert Catherine Young. Although banding – or ringing as bird researchers describe it in my native Britain – is commonplace on the mainland, banders are few and far between in … [Read more...] about A fantail in safe hands