My daily ritual of taking a walk on the wild side has a name in Japanese culture, shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing”. I learned this one bright and sunny late-winter’s day when I stopped in the Waterworks Reserve to chat with a visitor photographing birds. The photographer had set out to find the elusive pink robin and, seeing my binoculars and noting I was a birder, he asked where he might find the species. As happens when birders meet, the conversation soon started to … [Read more...] about ‘Forest bathing’ with pink robin a reward
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.
Needletails top of the class
A flock of needletail swifts flew high in the sky, weaving in and out of the clouds. It was a rare sight, these mercurial birds only occasionally coming into view across Tasmania. The arrival of the white-throated needletails in the summer months usually sends birdwatchers into a flutter. I had only seen them on one previous occasion when I suddenly saw them flying over Sandy Bay. The only problem was I was attending a parent-teacher meeting at my son’s school. The teacher … [Read more...] about Needletails top of the class
Spring arrives on the wings of a swallow
They say that one swallow does not make a spring but it certainly looked that way on Monday afternoon. A lone welcome swallow had arrived at the Waterworks Reserve as the temperature hit a warm and sunny 21 degrees. My records usually show the swallows arriving around the first weekend of September but I had a shock last year when they were late to show up. It’s always a worry when migratory birds appear late, and in smaller number, because it raises the possibility of a … [Read more...] about Spring arrives on the wings of a swallow
Migrants in the record books
Birdwatching is all about time and place and there was no better place to be for a group of international students than the banks of the Sandy Bay Rivulet earlier this month. By chance, the students had arrived for a community conservation initiative just as the first birds of spring were arriving from the mainland. It made the talk I was giving on the wonders of birds so much easier to deliver. All I had to do was concentrate on the wonders of bird migration. As part of … [Read more...] about Migrants in the record books
Seeker of freedom out of her cage
Morning has broken, like the first morning. Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird. A recollection of Judith Durham singing the hymn Morning has broken came to me the moment I turned on the television news on August 5 to hear of her death. By coincidence blackbirds mentioned in the hymn were singing in my garden, sweeping me back to my teenage years in the 1960s when I first took a serious interest in birds, and at the same time discovered the Seekers and the … [Read more...] about Seeker of freedom out of her cage