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
Three gannets bobbing on a heaving ocean gave a hint of what was to come. The gannets - black and white, with a yellow sheen to the head and nape - gazed down at the surf with a look of anticipation. Their steel-blue eyes had settled on a patch of water about the size of a bowling green that … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Shy and secretive, our little penguins are usually out of sight and out of mind until tragedy befalls their colonies. They only come to notice, hitting the headlines, when they are the victim of dog attacks although one celebrated penguin hit the news last year by trying to gain access to a Hobart … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
On the surface it’s a mere, dusty track climbing into the heart of my local reserve. I can never ignore it, though. It calls to me, lures me, seduces me, and I always feel compelled to explore the magical world beyond its leafy margins. The track leads from the far side of the lower lake at the … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Swift parrots were zinging around the treetops of the gums surrounding the Mt Nelson Oval, a location virtually guaranteed to see them after the migratory parrots have arrived from the mainland in spring. I had struck lucky after failing to find them a few weeks earlier. Blue gums in the area were … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
High above the Raptor Refuge at Kettering a wedge-tailed eagle sat atop one of the aviaries. I took a double-take, thinking for a moment that one of the eagles undergoing rehabilitation had escaped. No, this eagle was truly a wild specimen, taking a time-out from riding the thermals to view his kin … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
By Don Knowler
Masked lapwings might run the gauntlet of traffic and dogs when they nest in towns and cities but they are at least free of their age-old foe, the swamp harrier. Or so a lapwing pair believed when they set up home on a patch of open ground along Blair St in Richmond. A swooping swamp harrier was … [Read More...]
Filed Under: On The Wing
© Donald Knowler . All rights reserved.