Spotted Pardalote
What the Trees Held
When I think about the farm where I spent my teenage years, I think about the trees as much as the paddocks.
It was a dairy farm in North West Tasmania, where Dad planted trees along the creek, around paddocks and along boundaries.
Over the years, those plantings grew into familiar parts of the landscape. Places that had been open became sheltered, with branches stretching out and patches of shade beneath them.
The cows benefited too. They had somewhere to get out of the sun and wind, and the shelter helped protect the growing pasture.
For birds, the trees offered food, cover and places to perch.
There was a Spotted Pardalote nest near the dairy.
I like thinking about those little birds going about their lives alongside ours, raising a family of their own. While there were cows to milk and jobs to do, there was also a nest, and all the small, busy work that came with it.
The farm was home to more than the people and animals we were looking after.
After it was sold, some of those trees were removed.
I still find that hard to think about. Dad had spent years planting them and watching them grow. They were part of the backdrop to my teenage years, and to the summers I spent back home during university.
By then, they held more than the effort of putting them in the ground. They held memories for us, and food and shelter for the birds that used them.
I don’t know what became of those birds. I do sometimes wonder about them, and about the places they found next.
I chose flowering Blackwood because I love Blackwoods, and Dad had planted so many of them. Some were among the trees later removed. Their deep green leaves and soft cream blossoms remind me of the farm as I remember it.
Together with the Spotted Pardalote, they bring me back to those connections between trees, birds and the places we call home.
Here, this little bird has somewhere to perch.
From the Bird Mail Clubs
This Spotted Pardalote and flowering Blackwood feature on my November Feather & Perch postcard.
Receive the postcard through the Bird Postcard Club, or choose the Bird Collector’s Mail Club for the postcard, a bird letter with this story and extra bird facts, plus a matching sticker.