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Something lost, something found. Australia Day always engenders mixed feelings and emotions. I am glad to celebrate as a new Australian but at the same time I lament all that has been lost to my adopted country since my English countrymen first set foot on the continent. I spent Australia Day on January 26 at the Sandy Bay regatta, munching Aussie lamb burgers and drinking a little too much Tasmanian-brewed ale. All the while welcome swallows flew among the revellers on the … [Read more...] about Lament for lost species

It’s been the summer of the tawny frogmouth. Wherever I have gone these mysterious but elusive birds have appeared, often in the Hobart suburbs not too far from the central business district. And it has not just been me spotting the frogmouths. My email and post has bulged with frogmouth sightings in recent months, one pair deciding to nest in the gutter of a Hobart home. The young tawny, two wide-eyes blinking from a round ball of fluffy feathers as the sun rose each … [Read more...] about Tawny summer

The life and times of birds are not so very different from daily events in the human world. Eat and sleep, the daily grind of providing for the family, ill health and good fortune; ultimately it’s a struggle for survival on whatever level. Birds and humans live parallel lives, an existence controlled not only by the clock, the 12-hour division of day and night, but the division of the year into seasons. And ultimately we all share the adventure of a journey through life, … [Read more...] about And what time do you call this?

Just another day in the garden. Not quite. It’s New Year’s Day and I am engaging in a routine I always do on January 1: compile a checklist of birds spotted, to set me on course for a new year of bird-watching.  Usually I choose a place rich in birds for my January 1 foray, sometimes in an exotic location, but this year I’m confined to my garden because of a knee injury. Not that I am complaining. In my garden I can still touch base with nature and a casual stroll will … [Read more...] about The dawn of a new year

The portents for my bird-watching in 2016 look good after what I term a remarkable discovery in the Waterworks Reserve near my home in Dynnyrne – the sighting of a flame robin. My illustrious predecessor as the Mercury’s writer on nature, Michael Sharland, wrote in his Tasmanian Birds of 1948 that among members of the robin family, the flame robin was the one most likely to be seen in Tasmania. Well, 68 years on, I can write with authority that this is no longer the case. I … [Read more...] about Flame robin reveals itself at last