The Pacific gull – in crisp black-and-white plumage with bright orange and yellow bill – has long been regarded as the most beautiful of Australia’s gulls. Because it is largely a marine species it has avoided the tag of “garbage gull”, a fate befalling the silver and kelps gulls which love to scrounge food at fish punts on Hobart’s waterfront. The Pacific gull might have a squeaky-clean image in Tasmania’s south but its behaviour in the Derwent Estuary seems to be at odds … [Read more...] about A new ‘garbage gull’ flies high
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.
Swearing by shifty shades of grey
A flock of parrots teaching each other to swear or a pair of emus being banned from an outback pub. It’s the silly season when I look back at the past 12 months and choose my bird story of the year. Looking at the clippings I’ve collected during 2020 it’s surprising just how many bird stories make their way onto television, radio and into the national and local press. On my reckoning it’s a surprising three a week. And for a bird and animal lover there are gems among them … [Read more...] about Swearing by shifty shades of grey
Realm of the ‘turbo chook’
The internationally acclaimed Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart is being described as “wild and wacky” in the publicity material directed at mainlanders to announce Mona’s re-opening on Boxing Day after lockdown. The same can be said of Tasmania’s birds. Where else would you find the “turbo chook” and the “chuck bird”? Most, if not all, of Tasmania’s endemic species would sit well as exhibits at Mona, if not just for their curiosity, for their sublime beauty. Although … [Read more...] about Realm of the ‘turbo chook’
Secrets of the pallid cuckoo revealed
For years I have struggled to answer a reader’s query about whether some species of cuckoo return to collect their young after they have been raised by surrogate parents. The query has been partly answered by the discovery this spring that one of the cuckoo species visiting Tasmania during the breeding season, the pallid cuckoo, does indeed return to take over the parenting of their fledglings after they have been raised by other birds. I’m indebted to BirdLife Tasmania … [Read more...] about Secrets of the pallid cuckoo revealed
Ultra-distance traveller comes to grief
It was difficult to believe that the bird resting in front of me on a Tasmanian beach – a bundle of feather and bone weighing less than a small pack of frozen peas – had only recently completed an epic 14,000 kilometre fight. The bar-tailed godwit sat with another of its species amid a patch of dune grass squeezed between sea, sand and a barbed-wire fence protecting a vital shorebird resting and breeding site on the South Arm. The two birds displayed juvenile plumage, … [Read more...] about Ultra-distance traveller comes to grief