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The children had long departed after the sun began to fade on a glorious autumnal afternoon but a youngster was still at play on the soft, wet sands of Long Beach, Lower Sandy Bay. A juvenile silver gull played “boats” with a leaf, which it dropped and then retrieved from ripples of waves sweeping the shore. I was intrigue by the bird’s behaviour at the tideline. The leaf had been blown into the sea and it was being washed ashore by the waters of the incoming tide. The … [Read more...] about Bird of play in the spotlight

The call of the bunyip echoes from Tasmania’s ancient past. A low-pitched boom resonates on balmy, summer nights from wetlands fringed with reeds. Unsettling and unnerving, it’s no wonder that Aboriginal peoples across the country feared the sound, believing it evoked malign and sinister spirits. But these days the bunyip has been unmasked. It’s now accepted the bunyip of Aboriginal folklore is the bittern, a nocturnal member of the heron family that skulks in … [Read more...] about The mysterious bunyip unmasked

A penny for your thoughts, I’m saying to a Pacific gull. I’m intrigued. I’ve watched this lone gull for months. I can’t make him out. Where he comes from, where he goes? All I know is that every time I go to the Waterworks Reserve, I see him basking in the sun on an embankment overlooking one of the twin reservoirs. At first, in the early days, I thought the Pacific gull might be sick or injured. But he always looked in great shape, crisp-white plumage which he obviously … [Read more...] about A cool Pacific gull takes life in its stride

Although Mauritius and Tasmania are thousands of kilometres apart, they share a connection that can only be described as ironic. The islands have extinct species as unofficial symbols of identity – Mauritius the most famous bird to vanish, the dodo, and Tasmania, the most famous extinct mammal, the fabled Tasmanian tiger or thylacine. The tiger may be long gone but it still appears as a logo for government business, and is featured on our car number plates. In Mauritius, … [Read more...] about Extinction lessons from the past

Two little heads poked out above the sand dunes on Bruny Island. Rounded shapes, with sooty black heads, two little birds watching the beach-goers passing by, between undulating sand and a shoreline washed with waves. The hooded plovers had made an appearance just as I knew they would. Unlike many other beaches in south-east Australia, the tiny, largely white waders can always been seen among the dunes at the back of the beach, or hidden among wrack on the sands. By … [Read more...] about Tasmania a vital refuge for at-risk waders