It’s magpie attack time and a particularly aggressive bird is ruffling diplomatic feathers in Canberra. Usually I listen for maggie stories from Tasmania during spring but my attention has been drawn to a breach of entente cordial between the human and natural world in our capital territory. Japan’s ambassador Yamagami Shingo has reported he lives in fear of magpies in the swooping season. In his latest blog about his role in Australia, “News from under the Southern … [Read more...] about Magpie ‘terror’ stalks the suburbs
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.
Resilient ‘crows’ a dark wonder
The crow is one of nature’s great survivors, and the bird’s growing population is testament to its ability to outsmart those who want to do it harm. They’re smart, crows, there’s no doubt about it. Corvid intelligence is equal to that of primates and I need no evidence of this fact when the crow I feed each day comes to call. She’s worked out what time I rise in the morning and when I’m likely to be sitting at my computer. If I try to ignore her she moves from vantage point … [Read more...] about Resilient ‘crows’ a dark wonder
Swallows lose their summer home
For more than 20 years I have watched the breeding cycle of welcome swallows at the Waterworks Reserve but the chain of events looks like being broken this year. The BBQ hut in which the swallows build their mud-cup nest has been removed to facilitate engineering works at the reserve and I fear the swallows will lose their innate memory of this site when the works are completed after the breeding season has ended in late summer. Swallows tend to return to the same nest site … [Read more...] about Swallows lose their summer home
US veterinarian makes his mark
As the United States reeled from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York 20 years ago this week, an American veterinarian found himself stranded in Tasmania unable to return home. An expert on the rehabilitation of injured birds, James Harris had been attending an international veterinary conference in Hobart and during the shutdown of the US air routes he and his wife decided to explore Tasmania. On these excursions they discovered a land rich in … [Read more...] about US veterinarian makes his mark
Forget the Olympics, cuckoo has record of its own
As the Olympics wound down into the second week of August I had my attention on a statistic and record of another kind. I was keen to improve on my first sighting of a cuckoo at the end of winter. Although welcome swallows might be the official bird of spring – and I take note of the dates of their arrival, too – the fan-tailed cuckoo is always the first of the migrants to arrive in my neighbourhood. As soon as I hear the cuckoo’s persistent trilling coming from the forest … [Read more...] about Forget the Olympics, cuckoo has record of its own