On The Wing

“We all have a story to tell about birds”. That’s the mantra of this column but I was determined to return from a week spent at the Australian Open Tennis Championships without one. A wedge-tailed eagle called Zorro changed all that. For once, I left my binoculars behind and was determined to concentrate on tennis. What’s more, I was among non-birding tennis-tragic friends and was well aware they found my talk of birds a little tiresome at times, especially at a sporting … [Read more...] about Zorro the eagle plays ball at the tennis

IT’S not a pretty sight for the emotional or faint-hearted, an outsized pallid cuckoo chick being fed by a pair of tiny black-headed honeyeaters. When I saw the spectacle close-up for the first time, it was worst than I had imagined. The cuckoo actually lunged at one of the honeyeaters after it had received a big juicy insect, and the quick-retreating “parent”  had obviously learned to be  wary of the cuckoo’s ferocious beak. In a half a century of bird-watching I had never … [Read more...] about Duped by the cruel hand of nature

There is a quiet and tranquil corner of Hobart I call Cranky Fan Alley simply because every time I wander there I’m escorted by a party of grey fantails. What makes the bird-watching spot special is that it is situated in the heart of suburbia and the Cranky Fans – as they are known in southern Tasmania - are just one of many bird species to be found in this leafy corner of the urban jungle. On my latest visit on a summer’s afternoon just after Christmas two endemic … [Read more...] about A fan of green oases

It’s been a bumper summer for the armchair bird-watcher, the Ashes bringing a new flock of species to the television screen.  A magpie-lark at the MCG on Boxing Day was a stand-out, along with a magpie at the Adelaide Oval, but it was equally magical to see welcome swallows swooping and flitting across the Sydney Cricket Ground during the last few days of the cricket series. Swallows – like the ubiquitous silver gulls – are not a rare sight on Australian cricket grounds but … [Read more...] about Swallows out for a duck

Christmas Day on the mudflats. A day to remember with plenty of exciting birds and a sea breeze taking the heat out of the sun. After a lunch of turkey and plum pudding at a St Helens hotel I had taken off for an afternoon of holiday bird-watching. I didn’t have to wander far, a vantage point overlooking open water, marsh and mudflat was a short walk along the road to Binalong Bay. Before me lay a tidal pool, an island of saltmarsh and beyond this the wide expanse of … [Read more...] about Christmas fare on mud and marsh