The Tasmanian culture of the shack is taking on a new meaning on Bruny Island– it’s being extended to the holiday island’s population of forty-spotted pardalotes. Bruny residents of the non-feathered kind are being asked to support a scheme to supply the endangered birds with nest-box homes to see them through the breeding season. The program is being co-ordinated by a researcher who has joined the fight to halt the catastrophic decline of the Tasmanian endemic species … [Read more...] about Help for forty-spot nesters
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.
Singing to a different beat
A little bird singing robustly in a park in London had something in common with a species singing just as loudly on the other side of the world, in Tasmania. Both birds had modified their songs so they could be heard above the roar of the traffic. As I wandered parkland surrounding the Royal Naval College in Greenwich last year, I was halted in my tracks by the beautiful bell-like song of the great tit. The bird might have been perched in an elm overlooking a busy bus stop … [Read more...] about Singing to a different beat
Following in Darwin’s footsteps
The bubbling, chortling song of the yellow-throated honeyeater drifted down from the stringybark gums as I stood at a special spot beneath Mount Wellington, trying to envision a similar sunny, hot day on February 11, 1836. I often stand at the location at the top end of the Waterworks Reserve when I retrace the steps of another nature lover 177 years previously. It’s no secret that Charles Darwin visited Hobart during the epic voyage of the Beagle, the nearly five-year … [Read more...] about Following in Darwin’s footsteps
Eagles’ fatal attraction
Driving roads in the north of the state recently I was surprised by the number of wedge-tailed eagles I saw feeding on roadkill. I’d heard that “wedgies” are often seen on roadkill but I had only seen an example of this behaviour once – and that was on the Waterworks Rd close to my home in Hobart where early one morning a pair of wedgies with a youngster in tow had settled on Bennett’s wallaby carcass. The highways of the north were certainly providing a roadkill feast on … [Read more...] about Eagles’ fatal attraction
Swallows flee bushfire flames
A reader phoned at the height of the bushfires this summer to report that hundreds, possibly thousands, of welcome swallows had gathered at a single location in the HuonValley and he was puzzled why they were congregating in this way. It was too early for the start of the migration when both welcome swallows and their near relatives tree martins can be seen perching on telegraph lines, marking time before heading north to cross Bass Strait. When the reader called, smoke … [Read more...] about Swallows flee bushfire flames