As the Olympics wound down into the second week of August I had my attention on a statistic and record of another kind. I was keen to improve on my first sighting of a cuckoo at the end of winter. Although welcome swallows might be the official bird of spring – and I take note of the dates of their arrival, too – the fan-tailed cuckoo is always the first of the migrants to arrive in my neighbourhood. As soon as I hear the cuckoo’s persistent trilling coming from the forest … [Read more...] about Forget the Olympics, cuckoo has record of its own
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Netherworld beneath the rushing traffic
Beneath the rushing traffic on the Sorell causeway at Midway Point exists a netherworld that most drivers and cyclists will never see. It’s a world inhabited by some of the most remarkable wild creatures on the planet, birds capable of ultra-marathon journeys, sometimes straining the limits of endurance in 8000 km non-stop flights. The hidden world of migratory shorebirds has been revealed in recent years by satellite tracking devices which record not only the length of … [Read more...] about Netherworld beneath the rushing traffic
Nature awakes from its slumber
The “Joe Witty” call of the grey shrike-thrush rang through the woods but it was not as strident, resonant and far-carrying as usual. It was the same with the musical chortle of the yellowthroat and the “egypt” territorial call of the crescent honeyeater. A thick carpet of snow on the Pipeline Track below Fern Tree was cushioning all sounds except the steady soft thump of my hiking boots. It was beautiful, surreal, a cliché of a winter’s day, the proverbial picture postcard … [Read more...] about Nature awakes from its slumber
City dwellers cast into the urban wild
My “sit spot” in the foothills of kunanyi/Mt Wellington allows me to be immersed in the world of nature, a haven and sanctuary from the pressures of life. Once I would have described this window on nature as merely a seat fashioned from a fallen blue gum. The term “sit spot”, however, now stems from a book I have been reading, Rewilding the Urban Soul by Claire Dunn. The Melbourne-based author sets out to discover the “untamed heart of the urban jungle” and succeeds in … [Read more...] about City dwellers cast into the urban wild
Where the birdsong has fallen silent
As British television personality Michael Portillo went to air on SBS with his latest travel adventure in Indonesia, something was missing. The armchair bird-watcher looks and listens for birds when locations near and far are on the screen but beyond the commentary by Portillo on his Great Asia Rail Journey there was an eerie silence in the rainforest that formed his backdrop. In one corner of the world it appeared Rachel Carson’s frightening prophecy of a “silent spring” … [Read more...] about Where the birdsong has fallen silent