• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Donald Knowler

Dancing on the Edge of the World

  • Home
  • About
  • On The Wing
  • Tasmania’s Endemic Birds
  • New Nature Writing
  • Blog
  • Contact

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.

Optimism for the year ahead

February 2, 2019 Don Knowler

A young shining bronze-cuckoo ushered in a new year of birdwatching when I went on a birding excursion to the Waterworks Reserve on the first day of 2019. The cuckoo was not what I had expected because I had in mind the birds that I usually associate with summer, the satin flycatcher, the black-faced cuckoo shrike and the dusky woodswallow among them. The four species of cuckoos visiting Tasmania are also summer visitors but I’m not a fan of the cuckoo family. At this time … [Read more...] about Optimism for the year ahead

On The Wing

Molly the raven brings a ‘gift’

January 26, 2019 Don Knowler

Christmas day brought a present I had not expected, not from Santa but a female raven I have befriended over the years. The raven I call Molly introduced me to her offspring as my Yule-tide surprise. Birds had been off the radar during the Christmas build-up as I rushed about town doing the last of the holiday shopping. And on Christmas morning I did not pay much attention to an unusual raven call I heard coming from my garden’s exotic wattles. It was an insistent, … [Read more...] about Molly the raven brings a ‘gift’

On The Wing

Windows spell menace for birds

January 23, 2019 Don Knowler

A thud at the window of my study as I was typing away at my latest bird column. I didn’t need to go to the panes, and look outside to see what had made the noise. I was pretty sure it was a bird strike. Although I try to shield my windows - to reduce reflection of green leaf and sky which might lead birds to believe they are flying into open space - my home is prone to occasional bird strike. The house sits on the edge of the bush and birds in the frenzy and delirium of the … [Read more...] about Windows spell menace for birds

On The Wing

The language of birds

January 12, 2019 Don Knowler

My first close encounter with birds came when a flock of blue tits flew through a classroom window of the primary school I attended in Britain in the 1950s. The arrival of the birds was opportune because that very morning the class had had nature study, a core syllabus at the time. Nature study took its place firmly alongside the Three Rs, reading, writing and ’rithmatic, Nature study meshed nicely with the first two because when it came to learning to read many of the … [Read more...] about The language of birds

On The Wing

Bushcare volunteers to the fore

December 22, 2018 Don Knowler

The noisy miners were being particularly raucous one Sunday afternoon this month when Hobart’s Bushcare volunteers gathered for their annual year-end BBQ. A lone magpie and a flock of eastern rosellas put in an appearance, too, although they graced the event with sweet song and not the miner’s harsh, look-at-me, look-at-me cry. Perhaps the birds were there to say thanks to the Bushcare volunteers for all the hard work they had put in over the past year to help conserve the … [Read more...] about Bushcare volunteers to the fore

On The Wing

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 65
  • Page 66
  • Page 67
  • Page 68
  • Page 69
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 138
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

PUBLISHED BOOKS

The Shy Mountain

shy mountain

Silent and brooding, the Shy Mountain does not have to speak her name. We know she’s there, watching … [Read More...]

The Falconer of Central Park

Although written more than 30 years ago, The Falconer of Central Park has remained popular ever … [Read More...]

Riding the Devil’s Highway

Tasmania might be known internationally as the home of the Hollywood cartoon character, Taz, based … [Read More...]

Dancing on the Edge of the World

Dancing on the edge of the World by Donald Knowler

Dancing on the Edge of the World is a collection of essays that had their genesis in the “On the … [Read More...]

Search the archives

Recent Posts

  • A ballerina on the the mudflats
  • Birdlife varieties a feather in city’s cap
  • Dry winter does not follow nature’s script
  • Winter poses growing poison threat to birds
  • Spoof ‘Santa Cardinal’ flies high on AI
  • Tickled pink by a robin in the garden
  • Ink and feathers in the frame
  • Farm takes scarecrow idea to new heights
  • A soaring skylark hits musical high note
  • Song of Smelter Robins echoes from the past

© Donald Knowler . All rights reserved.