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A magical, mystery tour took me to some far-flung corners of a magical world on a beautiful winter’s day last month.  Not so much far-flung for me – being a half hour’s drive from home – but far-flung for birds travelling from one side of the world to the other.  Tasmanian bird-watchers were making their annual winter wader count and I took the opportunity to discover some of these hidden places along southern Tasmania’s shores where waders that normally fly to the northern … [Read more...] about Secret places amid mud and reed

CITY parks offer not only a green oasis for birds escaping the concrete and glass of man’s world, but for people finding the stresses and strains of the urban jungle too much to bear. On summer afternoons, watching the welcome swallows swooping over the greensward of the Parliament Lawns I have always been surprised at the large number of people, like the birds, seeking refuge there. The notion that “parks are good for city dwellers” was first advanced by town planners in … [Read more...] about Shelter from the storm

The heron took centre stage, like a ballerina on opening night. Grace, balance and beauty.  A delicate dance by a delicate  creature that appeared to float on air. The stage on this occasion was patch of immaculately mown lawn at a winery/restaurant near Richmond. And the backdrop, the scenery, was the sweeping vista of the Coal River estuary as it reaches the sea. Pirouetting and leaping into the air, the white-faced heron hunted worms just below the surface of the grass, … [Read more...] about Blue crane a star performer

Standing on a traffic island, it was not the safest or most convenient place to watch birds. I had no other option. At high tide in Ralphs Bay the roosting waders were crowded onto the only patch of seashell and sand they could find just a metre or so beneath the highway running through Lauderdale that borders the bay. A report of rare banded stilts in the bay had drawn me to Lauderdale but driving through the hamlet I had caught sight of a flock of smaller waders and … [Read more...] about Wader hide and seek on the highway

It’s curious, even comical, more like a cartoon character from Disneyland than a real-life bird. Worldwide there is no species of wildfowl quite like the pink-eared duck.  It’s a bird that looks like it’s been cobbled together as an afterthought, with pieces left over from the construction of myriad other species. It’s the duck-billed platypus of the bird world.  It resembles a shoveller but is smaller, and the bill is less like a shovel than an instrument used for poking … [Read more...] about Tickled pink by Disney duck