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The frost sparkled on the lawn, winter refusing to loosen its grip. Still, the song of spring rang out from the hedgerows in my valley and later from the woodland of the Waterworks Reserve. The first of the summer migrants, the striated pardalote, had arrived. In recent years I have been hearing the pardalote’s “pick it up, pick it up” song earlier and earlier. In the 17 years I have lived in the Waterworks Valley I have always timed it for the final week of August, just … [Read more...] about Striated pardalotes arrive early

About five years ago I added a new species to my bird sightings at the Waterworks Reserve in South Hobart – the humble coot. Because the Eurasian coot was so familiar during my youth in Britain more than half a century ago I never paid them much attention when I first saw them in Australia. But to see them at my local reserve for the first time was notable, especially as one pair raised chicks that first year. I now learn from the 2017 Tasmanian Bird Report – a marvellous … [Read more...] about Humble coot turns heads

Handsome, striking; a male peregrine falcon, the fastest creature known to nature, perched amid the tangle and chaos of the human world, sitting atop a lamp tower on the Tasman Bridge. He sits upright, jerking his head about him. Looking up, looking down, his eyes following the flight of starlings arrowing towards their winter night roosts on the bridge’s concrete spans. They are returning at day’s end from feeding forays into the country. The starlings know the peregrine … [Read more...] about Chaotic world belonging to man and beast

My television birdwatching has reached new heights in recent weeks with the return of Game of Thrones. To be honest, I’m more of a Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul viewer myself with a little “Nordic noir” thrown in, and I had so far resisted the demands of my family to make each episode of the fantasy saga a family experience. That was until I heard the cry of a raven. My ears pricked up and I was hooked. By some remarkable coincidence – although in my experience, … [Read more...] about No dark wings and dark words here

Each year birdwatchers in Tasmania set out to monitor populations of migratory shorebirds – and each year they record staggering declines in numbers of these remarkable birds. BirdLife Tasmania has in fact the longest data sets of shorebird numbers stretching back more than 40 years. These figures make sobering reading. One species of the group of birds commonly called waders, the curlew sandpiper, is hardly ever recorded in Tasmania these days, after being counted in the … [Read more...] about Wader counts make sobering reading