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
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.
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
Sadness turns to joy
The drought had finally broken and a pair of dusky robins told me so along the upper reaches of the Sandy Bay Rivulet just below Fern Tree. The robins flitted through the branches of stringybark and dogwood, as a raging torrent of water rushed down the rivulet, heading towards the sea. It had been a bleak summer and autumn for birds where I usually find them in the foothills of kunanyi/Mt Wellington. The drought had driven just about every ground-feeding, insect-eating … [Read more...] about Sadness turns to joy
Guerrilla in the grevilleas
A little bird darted by on chilly winds drifting down from kunanyi/Mount Wellington. It was gone in a flash, the blink of an eye, but I knew what it was immediately. There were two clues. Black and white feathers in a long tail, and a yellow-throated honeyeater in hot pursuit. The pick-pocket of the bird world, the eastern spinebill, was doing what it does best at the start of winter in the Waterworks Reserve bordering South Hobart – raiding the yellowthroat’s “honey pot” … [Read more...] about Guerrilla in the grevilleas
Currawongs warn of winter
Snow clouds gathering, and a flock of black currawongs is deserting kunanyi/Mt Wellington for lower ground. A big flock of them – 20 or 30 birds – is flying through the Waterworks Valley where I live, issuing the currawong trumpet call as they go by, heading east. Tasmanian folklore suggests that it is the sight of yellow-tailed black cockatoos in Hobart which foretells of extreme winter weather. In my experience, it is the black currawong – or mountain jay as they are … [Read more...] about Currawongs warn of winter