In a fast-paced, fast-changing world there is something wonderfully reassuring about the predictability of birds and their place in the environment. ``All’s well with the world,” I always mutter to myself when I find the superb fairy-wren, the new holland honeyeater or green rosella where I expect them to be. With a little time on my hands at Lake Barrington in the north-west earlier this year I decided to take a stroll to an area of dry woodland on the lake’s shores where … [Read more...] about Looks aren’t everything
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.
A little friend in need
The tiny marsupial blinked through pin-prick, shining eyes. I was blocking his path as he tried to scurry into the undergrowth on Mt Wellington. Sharing a track with a dusky antechinus half-way up the mountain, we had both been caught out by a sudden change in the weather that brought a blizzard swirling around the peaks to the south. I did not have a winter coat, or a hat but my problems paled into insignificance when I considered those of the antechinus. A brown falcon … [Read more...] about A little friend in need
In the footsteps of John Glover
Birds are our living link with the past and when I follow in the footsteps of the Victorian artist John Glover on a favourite track on Knocklofty above Hobart I think of the honeyeaters, the robins and flycatchers serenading him as he went on his way. The last time I walked the track the black-headed honeyeaters were in full voice – as they would have been in Glover’s time – and their piping calls rang through the canopy of wattle and gum on what is officially known as the … [Read more...] about In the footsteps of John Glover
A silence descends on the woods
The songbirds are falling silent in Britain and the eerie quietness descending on the woods and fields carries a grim portent for what could happen here if we do not take care of our environment. A recent census of birds in Britain revealed that songbirds especially were vanishing from the landscape in unprecedented numbers and the loss is being lamented as a tragedy for not just Britain’s natural world but for its culture. The British Trust for Ornithology says, if current … [Read more...] about A silence descends on the woods
A shovelful of beauty
The sparkling, golden eye of the shoveler caught my attention. It sparkled on the sparkling waters of the Goulds Lagoon on a sunny autumnal day. It had been a disappointing day for birds and now the shoveller, and the sun after clouds and rain, uplifted my spirits. Shovelers are one of my favourite birds and occasionally when I grow tired of the woodland birds nearer home I take a trip along the Brooker Highway to hunt out waterfowl, and particularly the shovelers. I don’t … [Read more...] about A shovelful of beauty