How Do You See Your World?

Craig Allen

My world changed as a 12 year old boy in Hobart, when – on a dare more than anything – I signed up to a school ‘bird banding’ activity, without the foggiest idea of what that entailed.

We spent a chilly morning setting mist nets in the scrub, and then carefully extracting some of the most delicate little featured creatures imaginable: weighing, measuring, banding and then releasing them. Some seemed to have no fear of us and lingered on our hands or heads for a few minutes, only adding to my sense of wonder.

From that day until this, birds have fascinated me and I’ve tried to create a home habitat in Canberra where they’d feel welcome.

And I’ve tried to pass on that curiosity to my own children.

For several years now we’ve hung an Eastern Rosella-sized nesting box, and excitedly debated “will-they-or-won’t-they” – from the comfort of our lounge room window. We’ve celebrated the successes, and mourned the failures, of that nest box – all the time wondering why every family doesn’t share our interest.

Surely we can’t be the only family that races outside to watch black cockatoos fly over the house? Or unflinchingly lets a king parrot venture inside?

That morning in the bush with Hobart ornithologists all those years ago set me up for a lifetime of learning from our birds. It totally transformed my world, and I only wish every child gets the same opportunity.