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The frost lay heavy and thick on the grassy embankments of the Waterworks Reserve, but it didn’t bother the sulphur-crested cockatoos. They were doing what they always do on winter days when over the years I have had the pleasure to walk among their noisy number on my late-afternoon keep-fit walks in the reserve. The cockies supplement a winter diet of seeds, nuts and fruits cadged, and stolen, in the suburbs with the juicy roots of grasses they dig up with their heavy, … [Read more...] about Cockies on a carpet of frost

My armchair birdwatching has reached new heights during the screening of The Kettering Incident on television. The Knowler family has long been used to my announcing what birds are singing in the background of TV shows, usually “cosy school” British crime programs like the “Midsomer Murders” series. “European magpie”, I’ll shout out with glee during a murder scene, or “song thrush” during the funeral of the victim in a village cemetery. The Kettering Incident, however, has … [Read more...] about The lazy-boy guide to birding

Willie Nelson is singing on my car radio he’s “gunna chase the sky forever” and on a winter’s day, I’m doing the same. The brilliant blue sky, dotted with fluffy white clouds, certainly appears never ending as I head north along the East Coast, tapping out the beat of the tune on the steering wheel. Willie Nelson is talking of stealing a silver stallion to ride to the horizon. I search for another gift of nature, not to steal but to revel in its sublime beauty and perhaps … [Read more...] about Traveller born of the outback

The song of a male scarlet robin drifted across my garden at the start of winter and I rushed to the lounge window to have a look at him. Yes, there he was atop a pin-cushion hakea beyond my lawn, singing his heart out and declaring a winter territory.  He might even be trying to attract the attention of a mate. It was special to hear, and then see, the resplendent robin in his bright-red finery because the species had been missing from my garden all summer and autumn. I … [Read more...] about Purr-fect storm for birds