THE grey fantail perched atop a silver birch was singing a joyful song to welcome the coming of spring. The rain clouds had just lifted over Hobart and now rays of late-winter sunshine rained down on the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens on the Domain. The fantail was a beautiful male in the crisp, new spring plumage. He sang a song of mellow descending notes, the song carrying further than usual. The male was putting an extra effort into the tune, no doubt to attract a … [Read more...] about Tuned into the song of spring
Blog
Rich pickings at the sewage farm
The man in the bottlestore in Werribee on the outskirts of Melbourne had a shock when I told him what I was doing in town. Making small talk on a sunny Sunday afternoon, he assumed I was a tourist visiting the Werribee Open Plains Zoo or a former stately home in the town which now operates as an upmarket resort hotel. “No, just visiting the local sewage farm,” I replied matter-of-factly. The hobby of bird-watching can take the birder to all sorts of off-the-beaten-track … [Read more...] about Rich pickings at the sewage farm
Gangsters in the ‘hood’
Thugs, muggers and bullies. The worst of Melbourne’s gangland violence may have passed but the standover men, and women, are still fighting their corner in the backstreets of St Kilda. I’m not talking here about the notorious gangland families – the Morans, Williams and Sunshine Crew – but the gangsters of the bird world: the mynas and miners, the crows and currawongs, the wattlebirds and the magpies. Added to the nefarious mix is a bird that hides its aggression behind … [Read more...] about Gangsters in the ‘hood’
Lament for the missing curlews
The air was thick with black coal smoke from a puffing, panting steam engine and a swirling mass of curlews. I pictured the scene over the Sorell wetlands, my imagination running riot as I hunted for waterbirds one late winter’s afternoon earlier this month. I always check the mudflats and wetlands surrounding Hobart in August, eagerly awaiting the first of the migrating waders arriving from breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere. The marvellous eastern curlew, the … [Read more...] about Lament for the missing curlews
Scarlet robin’s fiery feud
The air was still and calm, typical of winter, and the silence in the forests was made complete by an absence of birdsong. So the song of a robin came as a welcome surprise as I tramped a trail on the lower slopes of Mt Wellington. It’s often like that in late autumn and into winter. The chorus of spring and summer slowly dying as birds that have reared young do not have to be so protective of their territories, and broadcast the fact. Sometimes, though, when birds … [Read more...] about Scarlet robin’s fiery feud