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The last of the migrants have slipped away. Summer friends making off without even a goodbye, a cheery shout from the treetops, see you in September. They are conspicuous by their absence. The summerbirds and satin flycatchers no longer flit among the treetops, and the welcome swallows and tree martins leave clear airspace in park glades and across the surface of the twin reservoirs at the Waterworks Reserve where I usually see them hawking insects. An eerie quiet also … [Read more...] about Goodbye summer vistors, see you in September

I was reminded that wildlife is literally on our doorstep last month when I caught Covid and was forced into self-isolation. Bird-watching had to be confined to my garden for seven days but I was not complaining. It gave me some new material for a talk I was scheduled to give to the Lenah Valley Garden Club on gardening for birds. And in the long hours spent peering out of the windows overlooking my garden I also had time to take stock of what I had achieved with my … [Read more...] about Birds in search of a garden ‘oasis’

An eastern rosella sang from a high perch atop a rope ladder in Legacy Park on the Queens Domain. The children’s park was established a few years back as a nature-based play space and the singing rosella was a powerful affirmation of what the Hobart Council had achieved with its design. Children and their exposure to nature had been very much part of my focus this year after I read about the “playground revolution” that the Age newspaper in Melbourne said was sweeping the … [Read more...] about Children in nature’s wonderland

The tide is turning for endangered albatrosses in their fight for survival on the high seas. Birdlife International reports that the loss of millions of these magnificent seabirds in longline fishing grounds is being checked by the increasing use of bird-friendly fishing techniques. It is a dramatic turn-around from a situation which once saw one albatross being killed every five minutes as bycatch in trawler operations. The longline fishing industry and governments … [Read more...] about Tide turns for threatened albatrosses

I travelled north on a birding excursion last month and was immediately confronted by the great north-south divide. This had nothing to do with prejudice real or imagined against southerners or where a proposed Tassie footy team should be based, in Hobart or Launceston. Instead of a divide, this was more of a debate about whether the yellow-throated honeyeaters in the north sing a different song to those in the south. Listening to a chortling, chuckling yellowthroat at the … [Read more...] about Yellowthroats highlight the north-south divide