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A new term has entered the bird-watching lexicon thanks to the coronavirus pandemic – home birding. The phrase has been coined by the internationally renowned Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornwell University in the United States to describe how nature-lovers worldwide have coped with lockdown and isolation. Prevented from going in search of birds, birders have looked closer to home. But the notion of birdwatching in the garden or even from the front window is not confined … [Read more...] about ‘Home birding’ takes off

The Pacific gull – in crisp black-and-white plumage with bright orange and yellow bill – has long been regarded as the most beautiful of Australia’s gulls. Because it is largely a marine species it has avoided the tag of “garbage gull”, a fate befalling the silver and kelps gulls which love to scrounge food at fish punts on Hobart’s waterfront. The Pacific gull might have a squeaky-clean image in Tasmania’s south but its behaviour in the Derwent Estuary seems to be at odds … [Read more...] about A new ‘garbage gull’ flies high

A flock of parrots teaching each other to swear or a pair of emus being banned from an outback pub. It’s the silly season when I look back at the past 12 months and choose my bird story of the year. Looking at the clippings I’ve collected during 2020 it’s surprising just how many bird stories make their way onto television, radio and into the national and local press. On my reckoning it’s a surprising three a week. And for a bird and animal lover there are gems among them … [Read more...] about Swearing by shifty shades of grey

The internationally acclaimed Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart is being described as “wild and wacky” in the publicity material directed at mainlanders to announce Mona’s re-opening on Boxing Day after lockdown. The same can be said of Tasmania’s birds. Where else would you find the “turbo chook” and the “chuck bird”? Most, if not all, of Tasmania’s endemic species would sit well as exhibits at Mona, if not just for their curiosity, for their sublime beauty. Although … [Read more...] about Realm of the ‘turbo chook’

For years I have struggled to answer a reader’s query about whether some species of cuckoo return to collect their young after they have been raised by surrogate parents. The query has been partly answered by the discovery this spring that one of the cuckoo species visiting Tasmania during the breeding season, the pallid cuckoo, does indeed return to take over the parenting of their fledglings after they have been raised by other birds. I’m indebted to BirdLife Tasmania … [Read more...] about Secrets of the pallid cuckoo revealed