• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Donald Knowler

Dancing on the Edge of the World

  • Home
  • About
  • On The Wing
  • Tasmania’s Endemic Birds
  • New Nature Writing
  • Blog
  • Contact

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.

Wader hide and seek on the highway

July 13, 2013 Don Knowler

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

Tickled pink by Disney duck

July 6, 2013 Don Knowler

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

On The Wing

Super-sized hunt for gulls

June 29, 2013 Don Knowler

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

On The Wing

Fungi gives birds wings

June 22, 2013 Don Knowler

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

On The Wing

Tawnies to order

June 15, 2013 Don Knowler

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

On The Wing

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 119
  • Page 120
  • Page 121
  • Page 122
  • Page 123
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 137
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

PUBLISHED BOOKS

The Shy Mountain

shy mountain

Silent and brooding, the Shy Mountain does not have to speak her name. We know she’s there, watching … [Read More...]

The Falconer of Central Park

Although written more than 30 years ago, The Falconer of Central Park has remained popular ever … [Read More...]

Riding the Devil’s Highway

Tasmania might be known internationally as the home of the Hollywood cartoon character, Taz, based … [Read More...]

Dancing on the Edge of the World

Dancing on the edge of the World by Donald Knowler

Dancing on the Edge of the World is a collection of essays that had their genesis in the “On the … [Read More...]

Search the archives

Recent Posts

  • Ink and feathers in the frame
  • Farm takes scarecrow idea to new heights
  • A soaring skylark hits musical high note
  • Song of Smelter Robins echoes from the past
  • Lovely honeyeater flies beneath the radar
  • Ancient beacon of hope for urban wildlife
  • Solitary grebe rides the waves
  • Heron makes a meal of science
  • Crescent honeyeaters emerge from the shadows
  • The seasons are a-changing

© Donald Knowler . All rights reserved.