Listening to a boobook owl calling from the forest above my home in the Waterworks Valley during the spring I didn’t realise at the time this very bird could have just arrived from the mainland. What’s more, it could have flown a remarkable 250 kilometres non-stop across Bass Strait. Although members of the owl family have never been known for regular migratory journeys, the boobook of Tasmania is shedding new light on owl flight paths. A recent research involving … [Read more...] about Boobooks wing it over Bass Strait
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A curlew dips its bill for the last time
The slender-billed curlew is no more and the birding world is in mourning. The curlew has just been officially declared extinct – the first known global bird extinction from mainland Europe, North Africa and West Asia. Although this curlew species has an historic distribution far from Australia, its demise has sent a shudder through the birding community here. Australian birders here see it as a portent for the uncertain future of the eastern curlew. This bird, which breeds … [Read more...] about A curlew dips its bill for the last time
Tide turns for Australasian gannets
“Gannets galore” read a headline in the Tasmanian Bird Report 2024 as bird-lovers celebrated the discovery of another gannet breeding colony in local waters. The new colony has been discovered close to an existing one on the Hippolyte Rocks, off the Tasman Peninsular, and the location is being mooted as a possible tourist attraction. The good news featuring the gannets was tempered, however, by concerns that a virulent strain of avian influenza which has decimated gannet … [Read more...] about Tide turns for Australasian gannets
A wildlife walk that echoes history
It’s said that hiking is a reminder of how we leave a mark on the Earth. British sculptor Richard Long, as part of a series of works called A Line Made by Walking, wrote in 1967: “If you undertake a walk, you are echoing the whole history of mankind.” This quote came to mind when I walked the second section of the Darwin Trail on the Eastern Shore recently. Long’s words were a gentle reminder of how humankind has left such a far-reaching impression on the natural world since … [Read more...] about A wildlife walk that echoes history
A ‘pleasant excursion’ in Darwin’s footsteps
A sooty oystercatcher uttered a high-pitched whistle from a layered bed of sandstone below the Bellerive Esplanade. I was undertaking what a previous visitor to this shore, Charles Darwin, had described as one of his “pleasant excursions” in the vicinity of Hobart Town. Darwin was not specifically looking for birds, as I was on a glorious mid-summer morning, but no doubt he would have seen the oystercatchers and heard their call, along with a white-faced heron fossicking … [Read more...] about A ‘pleasant excursion’ in Darwin’s footsteps