• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Donald Knowler

Dancing on the Edge of the World

  • Home
  • About
  • On The Wing
  • Tasmania’s Endemic Birds
  • New Nature Writing
  • Blog
  • Contact

On The Wing

Passport to birdland
Birdland is a magical place where it’s possible to escape all the pressures and stresses of the environment of the city created and inhabited by one species – humans – and immerse yourself in a less one-dimensional world. Birdland is nowhere in particular, and does not have to be special or noteworthy. It could be in the wildest of wild forest, or in suburbia. It could be a pristine beach, a few hectares of eucalypt woodland, or a neatly manicured city park. It could be a backyard. That’s the magic of birds; they bring beauty and wonder to every corner of the planet, wild or untamed, and my On the Wing writing is their celebration.

Black-headed honeyeaters back in town

August 3, 2025 Don Knowler

The black-headed honeyeaters are back. All winter I’ve been hearing their “peep-peep” call after they fell silent in recent years. Once they had provided the background sound of my garden, the song also accompanying me along the routes of my favourite walks on the lower slopes of kunanyi/Mt Wellington. During the annual bird walks I lead for my local Landcare group, the honeyeaters had also proved a talking point if other birds had failed to show. Even without seeing … [Read more...] about Black-headed honeyeaters back in town

On The Wing

Goose almost cooked but it’s been saved

July 27, 2025 Don Knowler

Tigers, lions and a gorilla named Guy. There was much to hold a schoolboy spellbound in the London Zoo. The schoolboy’s focus, though, was firmly on a curious goose, grey in feather with a striking green patch of bare skin on its beak. The label attached to the wire of the wildfowl aviary revealed the goose had a place in the zoo collection just as important as the bigger, more dramatic bird and animal exhibits representing the wide world of nature. The goose from a … [Read more...] about Goose almost cooked but it’s been saved

On The Wing

Pardalotes warm to the idea of a Tasmanian winter

July 19, 2025 Don Knowler

United States President Donald Trump might describe climate change as a “hoax” but rising temperatures are certainly having an impact on the environment across the world, including in Tasmania. Tropical fish not usually found this far south are turning up in Tasmanian waters, little penguins are struggling to find fish that are vanishing from a warming ocean, and migratory birds are increasingly staying put instead of heading north in winter. One migrant that is apparently … [Read more...] about Pardalotes warm to the idea of a Tasmanian winter

On The Wing

Ballet on the mudflats as the world rushes by

July 12, 2025 Don Knowler

Sometimes I think I am totally out of step with the modern world. Was I the only one to see the ballerina of the bay, a beautiful great white egret pirouetting in the still waters of the Derwent one autumnal morning? Out of step but in-step all the same, joining the walkers along the foreshore of Cornelian Bay. People with dogs, with prams, with bikes, with friends, or going solo. It appeared only I paused to look at the egret’s reflected beauty, a mirror image in the … [Read more...] about Ballet on the mudflats as the world rushes by

On The Wing

Birdlife varieties a feather in city’s cap

July 5, 2025 Don Knowler

The City of Clarence is showcasing its wildlife treasures with a pamphlet designed to cash in on the growing popularly of birdwatching. The publication reveals nine of the 12 Tasmanian endemic bird species can be seen in the municipality but for me Clarence has two special species which several times a year I make the journey over the Tasman Bridge to see. The stand-outs are the sooty oystercatcher – common throughout Tasmania but somehow associated with the rocky reefs of … [Read more...] about Birdlife varieties a feather in city’s cap

On The Wing

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 139
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

PUBLISHED BOOKS

The Shy Mountain

shy mountain

Silent and brooding, the Shy Mountain does not have to speak her name. We know she’s there, watching … [Read More...]

The Falconer of Central Park

Although written more than 30 years ago, The Falconer of Central Park has remained popular ever … [Read More...]

Riding the Devil’s Highway

Tasmania might be known internationally as the home of the Hollywood cartoon character, Taz, based … [Read More...]

Dancing on the Edge of the World

Dancing on the edge of the World by Donald Knowler

Dancing on the Edge of the World is a collection of essays that had their genesis in the “On the … [Read More...]

Search the archives

Recent Posts

  • Last stop on the shimmering way
  • Black-headed honeyeaters back in town
  • Goose almost cooked but it’s been saved
  • Pardalotes warm to the idea of a Tasmanian winter
  • Ballet on the mudflats as the world rushes by
  • Birdlife varieties a feather in city’s cap
  • Dry winter does not follow nature’s script
  • Winter poses growing poison threat to birds
  • Spoof ‘Santa Cardinal’ flies high on AI
  • Tickled pink by a robin in the garden

© Donald Knowler . All rights reserved.