I’m sitting on a bench looking up at kunanyi/Mount Wellington, the peak wreathed in the fine blue haze of eucalypt oils which ooze from blue gums and stringybarks on hot days. The mountain has the hue of the satin flycatcher. The gums on Mount Wellington might cement time and place in Tasmania, but I’m not thinking of this island state at the tip of Australia, next stop Antarctica, and the things you see from a park bench there; butterflies and birds with names like the … [Read more...] about A memory carried on fragile wings
New Nature Writing
I strayed from the path of traditional, or pastoral, nature writing years ago when I discovered not only urban landscapes rich in wildlife, but anthropomorphism, irony, and bottles of red wine and bourbon with birds on their labels. As a young reporter, I had been impressed by the New Journalism of the 1960s which took reporting into the realm of the novel and short-story and a few decades on I found what were termed New Nature Writers breaking with tradition and exploring similar territory.
Although I still treasure the book that was my introduction to words about nature, Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selbourne published in 1788, I now find inspiration in one of the new journalists, Hunter S Thompson. Thompson might not have written of nature as such but his words “I write with rage and ink” have an irresistible resonance that carries far beyond the suburbs to the wooded hills of the horizon.
Our birds surviving on a wing and a prayer
Our neighbourhoods are falling silent as birds suffer dramatic declines in number, writes Don Knowler A green rosella sang a tuneful melody on my return from the Sunshine Coast, where I had travelled to escape the tail-end of winter. Together with my feathered friends, some of my other neighbours were also in tune as I made the rounds of my street to thank members of the unofficial neighbourhood watch for keeping an eye on my house, and the resident over the road who put … [Read more...] about Our birds surviving on a wing and a prayer
Gangsters of the bird world
Thugs, muggers and bullies. The worst of Melbourne’s gangland violence may have passed but the standover men, and women, are still fighting their corner in the backstreets of St Kilda. I’m not talking here about the notorious gangland families – the Morans, Williams and Sunshine Crew – but the gangsters of the bird world: the mynas and miners, the crows and currawongs, the wattlebirds and the magpies. Added to the nefarious mix is a bird that hides its aggression behind a … [Read more...] about Gangsters of the bird world
Bird of peace defies Putin’s horror
For centuries, the white stork has been a powerful symbol of peace for the people of Ukraine. Its arrival from Africa this northern spring gives new meaning to the notion that it can shield families from evil spirits, writes Don Knowler Ukrainians looking to the skies for Russian war planes and missiles have instead seen the country’s emotive symbol of peace – the white stork. The storks migrate to Africa each year and this northern spring have arrived back at a time … [Read more...] about Bird of peace defies Putin’s horror
Where humankind and nature’s worlds meet
A late-summer setting sun gives the grass a silky sheen at the Waterworks Reserve in Hobart. Insects that during the height of the day, the height of the sun, would be invisible, suddenly assume a shape within their own shadow, even if they are mere dots dancing on a gentle breeze. Swallows chase them, the welcome swallows presenting a larger shape, larger than life, etched against the golden sun sinking to the west. The insects move swiftly, if jerkily. They are no match … [Read more...] about Where humankind and nature’s worlds meet