Dancing on the Edge of the World
Everyone has a story about birds. They are all about us and are our contact point with nature. The birds I see are usually in an urban environment and so I concentrate on these in my writing. I don’t pretend to be an expert but birds of the city and suburb are also the ones that most people identify with, the species you do not need a compass and binoculars to seek out. A scarlet robin singing in a garden is just as exciting as a swift parrot in an ancient forest and is worth just as many words in my On the Wing writings, which appear weekly in the Sunday Tasmanian.
By Don Knowler
Friday the 13th might be an ominous signal of bad luck but for one of my readers it was a day of pure joy. A pair of grey fantails nesting in her garden – in fact metres from her backdoor – produced two chicks, which went on to grace her property in Sandy Bay with elegant, shuttlecock flight. This … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
The Tasmanian native-hens in my garden had been displaying the amorous side to their nature all night. Their mating ritual had started at midnight and the strangely rhythmic grunts and squawks finished at around 7am, just as the sun flooded the Waterworks Valley with light. The antics of the … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Highway patrol officers in a town in Switzerland reeled in shock when they studied radar images of speedsters – among the pictures of the local hot-rod hoons was a duck. The mallard was caught travelling 52 km/h in a 30 km/h zone and what’s worse – the bird was believed to be a repeat offender. It … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
You got to get them young, a wildlife educator told me one day when I assisted a presentation at Campbell St School in North Hobart. The point was once children were introduced to the wonder and magic of birds the interest would stay with them for the rest of their lives. Our presentation consisted … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
My family was on track to kiss the legendary Blarney Stone during a recent holiday in Ireland. I had a different agenda – tracking down some equally legendary Irish sparrows. Our holidays tend to go that way, whether to view tourist attractions like the ancient and symbolic Blarney Stone or the … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
I missed out on seeing the arrival of the endangered swift parrots this spring because I was away on holiday in Britain. Instead I looked for them in the stuffed and mounted bird collection at the Natural History Museum in London. Thankfully, the world’s fastest parrot was not there, an indication … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
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