My armchair birdwatching has reached new heights during the screening of The Kettering Incident on television. The Knowler family has long been used to my announcing what birds are singing in the background of TV shows, usually “cosy school” British crime programs like the “Midsomer Murders” series. “European magpie”, I’ll shout out with glee during a murder scene, or “song thrush” during the funeral of the victim in a village cemetery. The Kettering Incident, however, has … [Read more...] about The lazy-boy guide to birding
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.
Traveller born of the outback
Willie Nelson is singing on my car radio he’s “gunna chase the sky forever” and on a winter’s day, I’m doing the same. The brilliant blue sky, dotted with fluffy white clouds, certainly appears never ending as I head north along the East Coast, tapping out the beat of the tune on the steering wheel. Willie Nelson is talking of stealing a silver stallion to ride to the horizon. I search for another gift of nature, not to steal but to revel in its sublime beauty and perhaps … [Read more...] about Traveller born of the outback
Purr-fect storm for birds
The song of a male scarlet robin drifted across my garden at the start of winter and I rushed to the lounge window to have a look at him. Yes, there he was atop a pin-cushion hakea beyond my lawn, singing his heart out and declaring a winter territory. He might even be trying to attract the attention of a mate. It was special to hear, and then see, the resplendent robin in his bright-red finery because the species had been missing from my garden all summer and autumn. I … [Read more...] about Purr-fect storm for birds
Lightness from dark
The winter solstice brought a grey sky and a violent storm. Then a splash of sunshine, in an instant shining a light into the darkness, to the spring that beckoned in six weeks’ time. My primal animal instincts, and not the calendar, told me things could only get better after a particularly severe winter. They told the golden whistler, too, who for a brief moment sang his beautiful, descending melody before he fell silent again in the gloom of the fading light by late … [Read more...] about Lightness from dark
Frigate birds head south
The “twitchers” of the Tasmanian bird-watching community are all abuzz – or should I say all a-twitter – about the sighting of two seabirds never officially recorded in the state’s waters. The birds are lesser and great frigate birds which are normally found on islands and seas within the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. The birds – a flock of them in one instance – were spotted on the east coast of Tasmania about the same time the terrible storms struck the south-east and … [Read more...] about Frigate birds head south