Standing on a traffic island, it was not the safest or most convenient place to watch birds. I had no other option. At high tide in Ralphs Bay the roosting waders were crowded onto the only patch of seashell and sand they could find just a metre or so beneath the highway running through Lauderdale that borders the bay. A report of rare banded stilts in the bay had drawn me to Lauderdale but driving through the hamlet I had caught sight of a flock of smaller waders and … [Read more...] about Wader hide and seek on the highway
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.
Tickled pink by Disney duck
It’s curious, even comical, more like a cartoon character from Disneyland than a real-life bird. Worldwide there is no species of wildfowl quite like the pink-eared duck. It’s a bird that looks like it’s been cobbled together as an afterthought, with pieces left over from the construction of myriad other species. It’s the duck-billed platypus of the bird world. It resembles a shoveller but is smaller, and the bill is less like a shovel than an instrument used for poking … [Read more...] about Tickled pink by Disney duck
Super-sized hunt for gulls
In the great gull hunt all roads lead to McDonald’s and the other fast-food outlets dotted around the Derwent. I had signed up for the annual count of gulls that BirdLife Tasmania organises each winter and had been assigned good gull country between the Tasman and Bridgewater bridges. Tasmania has three gull species and I knew where to look for the smallest, and most common of these, the silver gull. Any place where humans gathered to eat fast food would do. For the other, … [Read more...] about Super-sized hunt for gulls
Fungi gives birds wings
I’m familiar with twitchers dashing around the world looking for rare bird species but I’ve learned that the esoteric world of fungi has its own globe-trotting fanatics. Fungi fans across the world will go weak at the knees at the mention of anemone stinkhorn and flame fungus, to say nothing of a species of fungi known as dead man’s finger. Tasmania, it seems, is a paradise for fungus freaks, or mycologists as they are officially known. I learned some fascinating facts … [Read more...] about Fungi gives birds wings
Tawnies to order
The tawny frogmouth stared at me intently, cocking its head to one side as I moved closer to it at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. How many hours had I spent searching for “tawnies” on summer nights under the summit of Mount Wellington without success, only to find one now right in front of me, perched metres above my head, flying free in a wildlife sanctuary and floodlit at that? Birds are like that, as I often write. They turn up in the most unlikely of places. On … [Read more...] about Tawnies to order