I felt like Moses parting the Red Sea, an ocean of sulphur-crested cockatoos dividing in front of me so I could walk between the birds. It was not a new occurrence, my Biblical moment when Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. It happens every winter on the embankments of the twin reservoirs at the Waterworks Reserve after the cockies have arrived in autumn to establish winter territories. If the arrival of the welcome swallows in the first weekend of September is my harbinger … [Read more...] about Watch out, the cockies are back in town
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.
Pelican keeps watch over a magical place
It was a slice of coastal Australia, a boat ramp under the watchful eye of a pelican, a picture-postcard yellow beach and a nearby stretch of marshland ringing to the cries of shorebirds. I stumbled on the spot when I washed up in South Werribee one early-winter weekend while searching for orange-bellied parrots on their Victorian wintering grounds. I drew a blank with the parrot but found a piece of paradise instead, a wild corner of Australia fighting not to be totally … [Read more...] about Pelican keeps watch over a magical place
Investigators crack massive case of birds’ egg theft
I thought collecting birds’ eggs was a thing of the past, confined to the dark side of natural history. So I was shocked to read in the Mercury a few weeks ago that federal wildlife officials had cracked a massive case of wildlife trafficking involving eggs. The seizure of more than 3000 eggs from a Hobart home made national headlines with investigators tracking the source and market for the eggs, believed to include endangered Tasmanian species such as the forty-spotted … [Read more...] about Investigators crack massive case of birds’ egg theft
Stunned by a flash of light
It’s the most spectacular of Tasmania’s birds. A gem of a creature which sparkles and shines as it dashes about the state’s West Coast waterways. The azure kingfisher has always been in my sights but for years I had not had the opportunity to search for it, beyond a cursory hunt along the banks of the Gordon River out of Strahan one summer. Now the hunt was on in Bathurst Harbour in the far south-west with tourist cruise operator, Pieter van der Woude, whom I think was as … [Read more...] about Stunned by a flash of light
A song of sadness rises from the woods
Although the early bird is said to catch the worm, it was not be at the Waterworks Reserve a few weeks ago. I’m usually a late starter but I had set out ultra-early to do some reconnaissance for a pair of American birders who wanted to see some of our endemic species. I had in mind both the beautiful and the curious, like the green rosella and the “turbo-chook”, the Tasmanian native-hen, but I was soon stopped in my tracks by a possible sighting of one of the less … [Read more...] about A song of sadness rises from the woods