Time and place, birds are a living link with history. The Tasmanian birdsong that lifts our spirits each day is the very refrain heard by the first people to inhabit these lands 40,000 years ago, the first European explorers (Charles Darwin among them) and the others who have shaped our history. When I refer to time and place I mean that no two places in the world have the same birds. It’s always been that way. The birds of Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide or Brisbane are … [Read more...] about A conversation on birds
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.
Bay of adventure
A solitary pied oystercatcher walked across the flat, layered rocks at Resolution Creek on South Bruny Island, as if on tip-toe, trying not to disturb marine creatures hiding in narrow rockpools of splintered and eroded sandstone. The oystercatcher probed delicately in the fingers of water, suddenly throwing back its head to reveal a wriggling worm or struggling crustacean, snared by knitting-needle beak. A timeless moment on the shoreline of Adventure Bay, the oceans … [Read more...] about Bay of adventure
Thrillers in the mist
MOUNT Wellington throws up surprises, in all directions, in all weathers. One misty summer morning I set out on a quest for mountain birds in a direction I had not traveled before, heading south-west along the Pipeline Track high above the hamlet of Neika. I was not to be disappointed. I had in the past walked the lower part of the track below Fern Tree from where it hits the city in South Hobart. Looking at the map, the higher section held even more promise but I was not … [Read more...] about Thrillers in the mist
A summer without end
IT’S an endless summer for the waders that come to our shores, unlike most of the rest of us who have to make the most of the holiday season over the Christmas period. That’s the time when Tasmanians flock to the beaches to take advantage of the best summer has to offer after our long winter that always seems to stretch well into spring. Migratory shorebirds, however, manage to dodge winter, travelling to different ends of the earth to exploit the seasons most favourable … [Read more...] about A summer without end
Prison eagles fly high
Fact is stranger than fiction, as the saying goes, and the film Healing about the relationship between a prisoner and an eagle under his care certainly mirrors a program once tried at Risdon Prison. The film, which aired on the ABC in late last month after general release in cinemas earlier in the year, has brought back fond memories for Nick Mooney of the groundbreaking Tasmanian rehabilitation program he supervised to link the lives of convicts to injured birds of … [Read more...] about Prison eagles fly high