“Beware the blue cranes,” I shouted to the metallic skinks as I rearranged the log pile into a neater shape, hoping it would be the last time I’d need a fuel supply for my wood heater this year. A far greater danger presented itself to the skinks than the unlikely event of being crushed between pine and peppermint gum. The same hot spring sunshine which had brought out the skinks to bask on bark had also brought the white-faced herons into the suburbs looking for a quick and … [Read more...] about Herons on the catwalk
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.
The joys of nest hunting
The female pink robin flitted about me, uttering her distinctive “tik” contact call. There was something about her flighty, nervous behaviour that told me she had a nest somewhere close by and my presence was causing her concern. I had seen the female in the same spot in the Waterworks Reserve a month previously carrying nesting material in her slim, sharp beak. And I had returned to see if I could locate the nest. The robin’s behaviour told me that I was getting warm in my … [Read more...] about The joys of nest hunting
Gems in the canopy
The arrival of the last of the migrants – the satin flycatcher – is supposed to signal the official start of the summer season but this year the travellers got their timing horribly wrong. As a male flycatcher sang out from a stringybark on the lower slopes of kunanyi/Mt Wellington, the summit was coated with snow. I didn’t even try to find the bird. The cold drove me home and when I returned next morning more blizzards overnight had brought the snow line down below the … [Read more...] about Gems in the canopy
‘Bunyip’ keeps its secrets
The sleeping beauty had gone to bed, darkness had fallen and I was standing on the main drag in Franklin hoping that the rare bittern would let me know it was about. The bittern lives in the shadow of the “beauty’’ – the stunning mountain feature to the north of the old port nestling on the banks of the Huon – and each year in spring I make a trip there in the hope of seeing this elusive member of the heron family, perhaps the hardest bird to spot in the entire avian … [Read more...] about ‘Bunyip’ keeps its secrets
Beauty along ‘forty-spot’ alley
The road I have dubbed “forty-spot alley’’ winds its way across north Bruny Island to the hamlet of Dennes Point. Although when I drive the dusty dirt road my focus is on one of the rarest birds in the world, the forty-spotted pardalote, I am always struck by the stunning beauty of the route. I happened on it by chance one year, going to spend a day with a scientist doing ground-breaking work on the endangered species, and I found myself driving it again this month at the … [Read more...] about Beauty along ‘forty-spot’ alley