Don Knowler

A family of “turbo chooks” scurried across the tree-lined drive leading to Government House confirming what I had come to see – Tasmanian native-hens had taken up residence there. I had written in recent months of native-hens and wood ducks invading the city and here was another example. The hens and ducks were keeping each other company, happily foraging on the manicured grass verge skirting the drive. I had been alerted to the birds’ presence by the Official Secretary to … [Read more...] about Native-hens make friends in high places

Everyone was seeing pink robins except me. They are my favourite bird, and in past years I have watched them rear families every year. Spring was never complete without them. This season, though, I had “lucked out’’, as birders describe missing a species that they should have seen. It appeared pink robins were everywhere. Three overseas birdwatchers told me so. A man from Denmark said he had spotted them along the Fern Glade Track on kunanyi/ Mt Wellington and two American … [Read more...] about Pink robin plays hide and seek

A fantail flitted about our heads, its joyous, reassuring, relaxed warble giving a lie to the delirium and frenzy of spring all about us. Birds dashing to and fro, a symphony of birdsong, males of the species showing off a fresh moult of spring plumage to dazzle the eye. It was one of those glorious early days in spring, when for the first time the sun shines strong and hard to announce that winter has finally been confined to  painful memory, when an epidemic of flu and a … [Read more...] about Fantails and ginger cake

Angry plovers have been getting a “buzz” out of disrupting – even for brief moments – the lives of visitors to the Waterworks Reserve in recent weeks. It’s a familiar story across the parks and paddocks of Tasmania at this time of the year. Walk across open space and sure enough the plovers will squawk noisily and then take to the wing to feign attack. I saw feign attack because the plovers never inflict damage or injury. The aerial bombardment is merely meant to drive away … [Read more...] about Angry plovers take to the skies

Birds do not gamble in the lottery of life. Although their movements and behaviour might appear random, they do not live on a wing and a prayer. Every move is deliberate and calculated to ensure survival for such seemingly frail and vulnerable creatures in an often hostile world. The certainties of bird behaviour have certainly been put to the test, however, by a family of Tasmanian native-hens who have made their home in an area that would appear unconducive to their … [Read more...] about The lottery of bird life