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
“What’s this bird, this falcon, that everybody’s steamed up about?” asks Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade. I could say the same thing about the breeding peregrine falcons that for 30 years have been captivating people on the busy streets of Melbourne. By coincidence after visiting the … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Birdwatchers each spring trudge out to mudflat and saltmarsh in search of the “Cinderellas” of the bird world - the migratory shorebirds that usually hide from view in inaccessible and sometimes remote wetlands. The shorebirds, also termed waders, turn up on Australian shores in late August and … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
A flock of hooded plovers scurried across a deserted beach like clockwork toys, their tiny bodies reflected in the glistening sand washed by an outgoing tide. They had the crescent-shaped beach all to themselves, save for a couple of silver gulls. The way it should be. No people in sight, no dogs, … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
I have a love-hate relationship with the kookaburras that hang about my garden, a little like the antipathy I have for the new housing development that arose a couple of years back beyond my garden fence. In their own way, they make me feel a little uncomfortable at times, but I have learned to … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
A cassowary in the rear-view mirror of my car. It’s one of my most bizarre bird experiences, almost as incredible an encounter with the bird itself. The southern cassowary sighting occurred while I was leaving Mission Beach in far-north Queensland after abandoning a search for the elusive … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
The morning television news reported gangland violence in Melbourne and Sydney. Closer to home, trouble stirred in my own backyard. A family of magpies – pushing out black-and-white breasts like in-your-face Collingwood supporters – had arrived in the ’hood. To say they had caused a flurry of … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
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