It’s a battle of wits between a heron and a school of whitebait in the shallow waters of Cornelian Bay. A contest in which two lifeforms compete using their mental abilities and quick thinking to gain an advantage, to win, or lose. For the fish, it’s just being wary, a matter of life or death. With the white-faced heron, it emphasises intellectual prowess, strategic thinking, and the ability to react quickly and cleverly to a given situation. Most importantly, the shrewd … [Read more...] about Heron makes a meal of science
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.
Crescent honeyeaters emerge from the shadows
There’s hidden beauty in the bottlebrushes. The crescent honeyeaters have arrived from their breeding grounds in the high country and the only evidence of their presence in my garden is the familiar “e-gypt, e-gypt” call I start to hear from early autumn. The “crescents” usually tend to be eclipsed by the more aggressive new holland honeyeaters in the suburban environment. and they can easily be mistaken for the bigger family member because they both show striking yellow … [Read more...] about Crescent honeyeaters emerge from the shadows
The seasons are a-changing
“There’s something going on, I could just feel it in the air.” A Bob Dylan song was playing on the car radio as I drove into the foothills of kunanyi/Mt Wellington for a day’s birding. I could certainly feel something in the air, not the impending drama in the song Lily. Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, more the change in the seasons. Autumn had arrived but you would never know it by the hot, sultry day. An Indian summer had enveloped southern Tasmania and the birds where … [Read more...] about The seasons are a-changing
Magpies separate friend from foe
The magpie wasn’t slow in coming forward, as the expression goes. It tapped on the window of a friend’s home, demanding to be fed. I was in magpie mode on a trip to Launceston. The species might be common across both farm and suburb in Tasmania but they are absent from my neighbourhood in Hobart. Magpies like open, drier country and the wet forests towering over my home in the Waterworks Valley are clearly not to their liking. Not so the bucolic Tamar Valley north of … [Read more...] about Magpies separate friend from foe
Life’s a beach for ‘odd couple’
The “odd couple” intrigued me all summer. The oystercatcher pair flew to roost each evening on the tin roof of the boatsheds jutting into the Derwent off Sandy Bay Rd close to the casino. They’d vanish each morning but sometimes on my keep-fit walk through Lower Sandy Bay I’d seen them again resting on the roof, even if on high summer days the metal under their feet must have been scorching. One morning, I decided to scan the whole coast going south to see what they got up … [Read more...] about Life’s a beach for ‘odd couple’