They say familiarity breeds contempt and each spring I certainly feel a little antagonistic towards the masked lapwings which prove a nuisance on my walks. It’s a familiar story. We all know in the suburbs and outer suburbs what it is like to be buzzed by the lapwings, commonly called plovers in Tasmania. In fact the birds, despite having yellow spurs on their wings, are incapable of causing injury, it just appears that way when they swoop with noisy menace if people stray … [Read more...] about Lapwings ruffle feathers in spring
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Migrants delay their celebration of spring
I was hoping to make an important announcement at the Waterworks community’s annual lantern parade which each year marks the end of winter. “The fan-tailed cuckoos are back,” I was hoping to shout to cheers as I sipped a mug of mulled wine. It was not to be. Usually the fan-tailed cuckoos, my harbinger of spring, turn up towards the end of August but this year they let me down although another early migratory species, the striated pardalote, had already arrived in good … [Read more...] about Migrants delay their celebration of spring
Macho blackbird gets a shock
A persistent, noisy tapping on a window of my home woke me at daybreak. “Tap, tap, tap”. I followed the sound as I searched the rooms of the house before finally coming to the window of my study overlooking the leafy back garden. There I saw a male blackbird banging its beak against the window pain. As I approached it flew off, startled, but it was soon back. After I had retreated to the bedroom to go back to sleep he started up again. He was at it all morning, all … [Read more...] about Macho blackbird gets a shock
Lyrebird sings of its own demise
My best birdwatching moments tend to come out of the blue, totally unexpected. So it was with my first-ever sighting of a superb lyrebird this winter. As I drove along the Lyell Highway, a lyrebird walked across the road in front of me. Although constrained by the car, and not being able to follow the bird for a better sighting, there was no doubt about what I had seen. Slow, stately gait, a big bird about the size of a chicken, and that long tail shaped like a harp, the … [Read more...] about Lyrebird sings of its own demise
The Birdbath
AMID the flutter, the vibrancy of life, John Simmonds was thinking of death. If he believed the television screen in the corner of his room, life was all smiles and blue skies. It was spirited, lively, action-packed and fast-paced with happy endings. And here he was in a wheelchair, a paraplegic. John Simmonds, tired of television, would look out of his window at the birdbath positioned in the centre of the garden lawn. Over the years he increasingly looked to the … [Read more...] about The Birdbath