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Tasmanian birdwatchers who traditionally gather on the state’s mudflats at this time of year to await the return of migratory shorebirds have been staggered to discover that one of the long-distance travellers has just broken the world record for avian non-stop flight. A bar-tailed godwit making the southward journey along the East Asian-Australasian migratory flyway has been clocked flying non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand. The bird covered around 12,000 kilometres in 11 … [Read more...] about Flying feat by some distance

“Donny, there’s twitching within,” said Richard Flanagan when he signed a copy of his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North during its launch a few years back. Sure enough, when I read the Booker Prize-winning work, I found the central character Dorrigo Evans doing a spot of birdwatching in the Midlands where the early part of the novel is set. As Flanagan wrote, Dorrigo “would smell damp bark and drying leaves and watch the clans of green and red musk lorikeets … [Read more...] about The sounds of silence

A giant stack of sticks on display in the Freycinet National Park demonstrates the time and energy that white-bellied sea eagles put into building the structure that forms their nests. The pile has another function – to encourage walkers not to fashion walking sticks from woody debris they find under trees. An information panel with the title “not just a stick” explains the debris not only forms the building blocks of eagle nests but is a vital ingredient for the health of … [Read more...] about Nest sticks in short supply

A key birding initiative has been given a boost by the sighting of one of Australia’s rarest birds, the swift parrot, in Melbourne. The arrival of the swift parrot - travelling through Victoria on its return to breeding grounds in Tasmania - has helped spur the Aussie Backyard Bird Count, which starts on October 19. The count takes place during National Bird Week and is designed to encourage home-owners to pay attention to the birds that might be visiting their gardens, and … [Read more...] about Swift parrot centre stage

It’s that time of the year when the normally shy and retiring plovers try to throw their weight around. On open spaces they dive-bomb walkers, often coming out of nowhere to give everyone a scare, swooping so close that the rush of air from their wings can be felt on the head. Much myth surrounds the spur-winged plovers, also known more formally as masked lapwings. It is said erroneously that the spurs situated on the fold of their wings are poisonous. The spurs, in fact, … [Read more...] about Plovers come to grief