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
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.
Black cockies on a high
A few years back I bumped into an acquaintance who was known from time to time to indulge in illegal substances. With great excitement be grabbed me by the arm outside the old Mercury building in Macquarie St, pointing towards Franklin Square across the road. “Black cockie,” he was shouting, “magnificent to see one in the city. You bewty.” I was about to ask him what he had been on, when I heard not one but a whole party of yellow-tailed black cockatoos calling from the … [Read more...] about Black cockies on a high
Birds of a feather…
Every time I find a bird feather I can’t resist picking it up and putting it in the band of my bush hat. But next time I tramp one of my favourite habitats – that of the wetland – I’m going to have a different purpose for the iridescent bottle-green flight feathers of the chestnut teal or the stunning blue ones of the purple swamp-hen I find there. A new citizen science program – the Feather Map of Australia – is asking people of all ages to collect and post in feathers they … [Read more...] about Birds of a feather…
Plovers 1, Eagle 0
I thought I knew all the best bird-watching spots around the city but recently I stumbled, literally, on a new one. The combined Long and Nutgrove Beaches in lower Sandy Bay have made it an autumn to remember, a season when bird-watching tends to take a back seat because of a paucity of birds, with migrants returning to the mainland. I’d never bothered to walk this section of the Derwent coastline before but it proved a convenient spot for rehabilitation walks after total … [Read more...] about Plovers 1, Eagle 0
The battle of the birdbath
The birdbaths which decorate gardens up and down suburbia have emerged as an area of conflict for our birds, especially during a summer of drought like the one we have just experienced in Tasmania. The “battle of the birdbath” has been the focus of a nation-wide survey over the past two years to determine which species are able to dominate these unnatural sources of water, and which species are shut out. The results of the survey so far have thrown up some surprising … [Read more...] about The battle of the birdbath