Birdland is a magical place where it’s possible to escape all the pressures and stresses of the environment of the city created and inhabited by one species - humans – and immerse yourself in a less one-dimensional world. Birdland is nowhere in particular, and does not have to be special or noteworthy. It could be in the wildest of wild forest, or in suburbia. It could be a pristine beach, a few hectares of eucalypt woodland, or a neatly manicured city park. It could be a … [Read more...] about Passport to birdland
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A little help for feathered friends
With a little held from my friends. The lyric of the Beatles song rang out across the garden from an open window in my lounge, at the very moment a striated pardalote struck up in song. It was an appropriate duet, a song of the suburbs, because earlier I had been reading an email from Bruce Longmore and Sue Drake about their efforts to provide a home for pardalotes in their Ridgeway garden, to help out the tiny birds in the ever-increasing hunt for nesting cavities each … [Read more...] about A little help for feathered friends
Satin flycatchers welcomed back
The last of the summer migrants, the beautiful satin flycatchers, have arrived safely this year at the place I always find them in mid-spring, a stretch of white peppermint eucalypt woodland in the Waterworks Reserve. These birds are the most eye-catching of the migrants, the males with a plumage of shimmering satin feathers on their head and backs, set against a silvery-grey on the breast. The females mix grey, ivory and a splash of russet on the throat. The flycatchers … [Read more...] about Satin flycatchers welcomed back
Beauty’s in the brush
THEY say the life of a writer is a lonely one but most days I have the company of a family of green rosellas. My study looks out on a thicket of yellow bottlebrushes and year-round they fossick among the leaves, chewing on the pollen and nectar-laden flowers in spring, or seeds in the autumn. For the rest of the year they merely hang out in the dense foliage, calling merrily to other green rosellas passing overhead. I’ve tried to take pictures of the rosellas but somehow … [Read more...] about Beauty’s in the brush
Hard act to swallow
The phone rang early one morning with an excited David Kernke on the line. He wanted to report that the welcome swallows had arrived back at Shene, the historic property he is restoring with his wife, Anne, at Pontville. I had heard earlier in the year that amid all the restoration work at what is considered one of the most significant homes in Tasmania, if not Australia, a family of swallows had also been left in peace to claim their own piece of heritage. The craftsmen … [Read more...] about Hard act to swallow