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The musk lorikeets hustled and bustled at the heart of a bottlebrush, hanging upside down to get at the pollen in the bush’s crimson flowers. During a power walk along the shore of Montrose Bay I had been stopped in my tracks by the cheerful antics and beauty of the lorikeets. When they balanced on thin twigs on the outside of the bush – like tight-rope walkers at the circus - their iridescent plumage shimmered bright green in the late afternoon sun. Power walks are not … [Read more...] about Musk lorikeets a fun-run distraction

Tree martins on a late summer evening dived and dunked into the stippled waters of the twin reservoirs at the Waterworks Reserve, sending up golden splashes that reflected the last rays of a dying sun. The sunset provided a backdrop to the martin manoeuvres and, strangely, I recalled an exploding volcano in Iceland I had just seen on television, throwing droplets of molten lava into the air. Tree martins were hitting the water in what is termed “splash bathing” and as they … [Read more...] about Explosion of gold on a summer’s evening

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

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

“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