The haunting call of a boobook owl took me one summer’s night into that parallel universe that is the world of birds. I have to confess I was a little worse for wear at the time after spending the early evening drinking with former colleagues from the Mercury. When I retired to bed early – leaving my family to watch a program on television – I had no idea that the evening would produce such a momentous event. Deep in blissful sleep, I was suddenly awoken by the … [Read more...] about Boobook springs a surprise
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.
There goes the neighbourhood
BIRDWATCHERS call them the bogans of the bird world – the common Indian mynas of the mainland which constantly try to mount an invasion of Tasmania’s shores. It might be an unkind epithet for an introduced bird species which does not naturally belong in Australia, but the mynas certainly make enemies wherever they go. I don’t like the term bogan, used either in a human or avian context, but all the bird experts I know happily use it to describe this exotic species which … [Read more...] about There goes the neighbourhood
Gone but not forgotten
IT could be back to the future for a long-lost Tasmanian bird as the debate rages over a new logo for the Hobart City Council. Former mayor Damon Thomas has proposed the council revert to its historic coat of arms, instead of the futuristic logo which incorporates two interwoven blue and green bands, dubbed a set of Band-Aids by one alderman. It just so happens that the coat of arms – designed in 1951 and based on an earlier unofficial crest used by the city from the 1850s … [Read more...] about Gone but not forgotten
Seal of approval in the suburbs
A quiet Sunday afternoon in the suburbs surrounding Prince of Wales Bay. People walking dogs, a man fishing from a boat, children playing in a playground at the water’s edge. It could have been any suburb, any Sunday, until something remarkable happened, an event which could only occur in a city where the human and natural worlds come together and share common ground. A fur seal made an appearance, drawing human onlookers to the foreshore and sending anxious black swans … [Read more...] about Seal of approval in the suburbs
The north versus the south
A great white egret gave me a menacing stare on the boardwalk which runs through the Tamar Wetlands Reserve in Launceston. The egret, standing more than a metre tall, had flown with slow, lazy flaps of his giant wings from his feeding ground in shallow water to roost on the boardwalk at mid-day. The late autumn wind blowing in from the south had eased, and the beautiful egret with lacy, pure-white plumage wanted to soak up the sun which had just broken through the … [Read more...] about The north versus the south