Ross River Dam, Townsville

Early this morning, Mount Stuart was caught in cloud, its towers spectres in the mist. Rain had fallen overnight, its remnants speckling the windshield as Vilis drove the Kia south through the city to...

A Bower, Black Saturday, and Black Flying Foxes

Early this morning, I rose from sleep and headed to the Ross River Parkway for a bash of birding, the highlight of which was sighting a great bowerbird – fawn-coloured with a brown, grey-scalloped d...

Brushtail Possum and the 2009 Australian Word of the Year

At dawn in the Ross River Parkway, white ibises were dim shapes feeding in sporadic drizzle, their black beaks shadowed curves. A sulphur-crested cockatoo squealed like an avian pig as it cruised low ...

Townsville: A Birding Paradise

After a week of birding, Townsville’s avian diversity still overwhelms me. My 1997 copy of The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, written by Graham Pizzy and illustrated by Frank Knight, lis...