A raven out of synch with my bedside clock guarantees I get an early start to the day. Although the clocks went back in April I didn’t get the benefit of an extra hour in bed because the female forest raven I feed daily kept to her old routine. If you are a raven you judge time by the rising and falling of the sun and not the ticking of a clock. “My” raven sits on the roof at exactly seven o’clock instead of the current time an hour later, at the moment I usually rose to … [Read more...] about Raven keeps to its own time
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.
A journey back in time
Driving to Taroona on a misty autumnal night recently I was struck by a sense of déjà vu, a journey that was coming full circle. As a cub reporter a half century previously I cut my journalist teeth on the type of community meeting I was about to attend. Many men of my age speak of a misspent youth frequenting snooker parlours; I spent mine covering community gatherings like garden clubs with my reporter’s notebook. During summer weekends it was garden shows along with the … [Read more...] about A journey back in time
‘Waves’ of fantails head north
Migrating Tassie fantails have been captivating twitchers on the other side of Bass Strait this autumn. Victorian birders often gather at this time of the year along their southern coast to watch the arrivals of not just fantails but other Tasmanian-born birds before the migrants make their perilous journeys further north. On some occasions, with favourable weather conditions, there are “waves” of the birds to rival the spectacle of more famous migration sites in the Gulf … [Read more...] about ‘Waves’ of fantails head north
Hopeless hunt for NZ’s native birds
I stalked one of the ubiquitous “little brown birds” on a recent road trip through News Zealand’s spell-binding Southern Alps. The mountains formed a backdrop against the blue waters of Lake Tekapo but I ignored the stunning beauty of the snowy peaks, painted pink in the rising sun at dawn, to focus on the bird flitting around a low bush. The bird promised to be my first New Zealand species, although the trip was not primarily about birdwatching, I was on my way to the … [Read more...] about Hopeless hunt for NZ’s native birds
Waders missing from the mudflats
The wetlands of southern Tasmania have been described as the “litmus test” for rapidly decreasing migratory shorebird populations across their range and a look at BirdLife Tasmania’s surveys proves the point. The local affiliate of the national bird conservation body, BirdLife Australia, has the oldest data sets of shorebird populations and their records spanning more than half a century highlight the catastrophe enmeshing our wading birds. A presentation by a Birdlife … [Read more...] about Waders missing from the mudflats