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
Miscellaneous
The green rosella gently picking at the seeds of a yellow bottlebrush in my garden carried a stature and grace about it that told of a long life well lived. I had learned during the summer months that the brighter the colours of a rosella, the older the bird and the bright colour of this old fella – especially the bright yellow on the breast and underbelly and iridescent blue in the wings – certainly suggested he had reached an age that in humans is marked by … [Read more...] about
LOOK again when a flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos passes overhead because there might be a crafty white goshawk travelling with them. My amateur research into the behaviour of white goshawks in my valley has taught me that they can sometimes be found in association with cockies – if not at the heart of the flock, at its fringe. And what is surprising is the white cockies appear to tolerate these usurpers even though all my bird books suggest that the fearsome predator … [Read more...] about
The blood-curdling screams rang out across Ridgeway high above Hobart, carrying as far as the Waterworks Reserve in the valley below. Blood-curdling and spine-chilling. That’s no exaggeration when describing the cry of the masked owl especially, as on this occasion, it was being magnified four or five times by the use of a loud-hailer. An “Owls in the Spotlight” event had been organised by the Ridgeway Bushcare group and the city council’s Bush Adventures program and as I … [Read more...] about
The blood-curdling screams rang out across Ridgeway high above Hobart, carrying as far as the Waterworks Reserve in the valley below. Blood-curdling and spine-chilling. That’s no exaggeration when describing the cry of the masked owl especially, as on this occasion, it was being magnified four or five times by the use of a loud-hailer. An “Owls in the Spotlight” event had been organised by the Ridgeway Bushcare group and the city council’s Bush Adventures program and as I … [Read more...] about