WITH DON KNOWLER

My favourite pair of boots has been out of commission all spring and summer after a family of striated pardalotes chose them as their home.

Sounds bizarre, I know, but I had an inclination it would be a summer of discontent when I saw the pardalotes inspecting my worn, trusty Blundstones at the start of their nesting season in early September.

The boots had been left out in my car port – not going on their usual winter birding adventures simply because I was recovering from knee surgery.

There are three species of pardalote found in Tasmania – the striated, the spotted and the forty-spotted – and they all nest in cavities, ranging from holes in trees to holes in the ground, even holes in piles of grass cuttings if they are left in place long enough.

I’d heard of striated pardalotes nesting in hanging flower baskets, but all the same, I could never have imagined – until this summer – that they would use my boots, although the car port itself had proven an attraction in recent years.

A male pardalote nesting in a hole under a neighbour’s drive had chosen the roofed car port to broadcast its monotonous, far-carrying “pick-it-up” territorial song, which had proven a little more than annoying. For hours, days and months, he sang non-stop during daylight.

I thought my pardalotes might be unique in the bird world to put their best foot forward when it came to nesting in unusual places, but it appears a family of cape wagtails in South Africa have beaten them to it. At the risk of being accused of product placement, Forbes magazine in the US reported last year that the pair of birds had also chosen Blunnies as a home to rear their young, like the pardalotes.

The magazine described the “cult” status of Tasmanian Blunnies around the world and, together with accounts of Hollywood and sports stars seen wearing them, were unusual anecdotes about the boot brand, including the wagtail one from a South African Blunnies fan.

The South African noted the birds had returned seven years in a row to nest in the same boots and each year he couldn’t bring himself to clear out their straw nesting material once they had started nest building, as he vowed he would.

Not wishing to sound like a birding pedant, the article did state the wagtails were migratory, whereas in fact they are largely resident, not moving season to season more than 1km from a pair of boots.

The striated pardalotes, on the other hand, are definitely long-distance travellers and this year I’m eagerly anticipating their departure in early March. They reared two sets of young and, no doubt like their parents, these will be returning from the mainland for their own breeding season.

And on the pardalotes’ return in late August I’ll make sure the new Blunnies I’ve now acquired are placed out of sight.