It was a battle of life and death, staged right in front of me, in a low sandstone wall at the entrance to the Waterworks Reserve. A tiger snake had located the nest of a striated pardalote hidden between cracks in the drystone wall and was trying to get at the pardalote’s young. The snake had squeezed at least half of its considerable length into the wall’s crevices and its tail wagged wildly as it thrust itself even further into the gap. I could hear chirping and … [Read more...] about Sandstone wall of terror
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Rivulet of life
When is a ditch a stream, or a brook or a rivulet? The Friends of the Sandy Bay Rivulet have known the answer to this question for a decade and they were pleased to have it confirmed once again on a recent Sunday by a leading freshwater ecologist, Professor Peter Davies. The rivulet that makes its way down from Mt Wellington to the Derwent at Sandy Bay might look like a ditch in its concrete-lined lower reaches but, despite two centuries of misuse during which time it was … [Read more...] about Rivulet of life
The cuckoo’s summer torment
EVERY year there’s the bird that got away, the species that eluded me in the summer months. Last year it was the satin flycatcher, this year another migrant, the shining bronze-cuckoo. Cuckoo songs are loud and far-carrying, as much a part of summer as the whirr of the garden strimmer and lawn-mower. We all hear them in the suburbs without knowing of the birds making these strange sounds. Two of the four cuckoo species visiting Tasmaniain summer, the fan-tailed and pallid … [Read more...] about The cuckoo’s summer torment
Macquarie Street
THE ODOUR was unmistakable. The smell of damp earth, of moss, of rotting logs. As a log truck passed, the scent of the forest was spread across the tarmacadam of Macquarie Street in the heart of Hobart. It was carried on sawdust and dried leaves, on pieces of bark and twig, mixing with the dry city dust, in gutters, in doorways and window sills. Walking to work one morning I was reminded I had not been able to get to the forest at the start of spring, when the swift parrots … [Read more...] about Macquarie Street
Fear and loathing on the mountain
WE were somewhere around Halls Saddle on the edge of the mountain when the alcohol began to take hold. I remember saying something like, “I feel a bit lightheaded … ” and suddenly there was a terrible roar around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge birds, all swooping and screeching and diving around. “Good heavens, what are those birds?’’ said Lindsay, and I replied matter-of-factly, calmly even, “Black jays”, and then I corrected myself and said, “Tasmanian … [Read more...] about Fear and loathing on the mountain