On The Wing

Although humans and birds are separated by millions of years of evolution, we share remarkable similarities in some of our behaviours. That is why we love them so much. It is well known that birds like humans use song to communicate and educate their young. Now scientists studying superb fairy-wrens have discovered that, like humans, they are more likely to help family members in distress than strangers. The beloved Australian songbirds will risk life and limb for its … [Read more...] about It’s all in the family for fairy-wrens

Bird-watchers have been searching Tasmania’s wetlands for a little winter visitor from New Zealand which bucks the trend of north-south migration. The shorebird, the double-banded plover, chooses to travel east to west, leaving its breeding grounds in the southern New Zealand alps for the south-eastern Australian mainland and Tasmania in March. After its western sojourn, it flies back in early September. Although the north-south migrants make epic journeys each year of … [Read more...] about A winter haven on this side of the ‘ditch’

Amid all the frenzy and excitement over the Matildas campaign, Tasmania’s “Mr Football”, Walter Pless, found himself distracted by events off the pitch. On the eve of the Matilda’s game against France, Walter had been counting down the hours by reporting on a lesser game, the Glenorchy Knights versus Riverside Olympic at KGV Park in Glenorchy. Forget the 3-0 victory for the Knights, Walter was recording the antics of two peregrine falcons on one of the floodlight … [Read more...] about Peregrines score goals of their own

It wasn’t the promise of lemonade scones and the chance to catch up with my birding mate, Denis Abbott, that lured me to the panoramic setting of the restaurant at the Mt Nelson Signal Station. It was the prospect of seeing the first arrival of spring – a striated pardalote. According to my records, the straited pardalote is always the first bird to arrive, beating the official harbinger of spring, the welcome swallow, by two weeks on some occasions. Although it has been … [Read more...] about Warm welcome for early striated pardalotes

It’s that time of the year when rats and mice are rampant in our homes, and the time of the year when our beautiful birds of prey are exposed to dangerous rodenticides. Some types of rat and mice poisons can be harmful to birds if they pick up dead and dying rodents and so we must be careful with the products we choose at the supermarket or in the hardware store. I’ve written about the danger of rodenticides in the past and this winter I had a chance to put this knowledge … [Read more...] about Beware rodenticide danger to birds of prey