Great Bay, Bruny Island

3/12/2011

Day two started with broken clouds, so we headed to Bruny Island on the first Ferry. We had lots of company, having chosen the day of the Bruny Island Ultra-marathon with a couple of hundred runners and supporters running the 64 kilometres from Dennes Point to the Light House. (Paul Johnson was first to the lighthouse with a time of 5:35:41). We moved at a more leisurely pace, and runners kept passing and re-passing us as we stopped to peer into the roadside trees. At one such stop on Main Road, Great Bay, we pulled up for Dusky Woodswallows on the roadside powerlines, but were diverted by a small green parrot flying up from the lines a little further down. Waiting for it to return we saw Yellow-throated and Black-headed Honeyeaters and Black-faced Cuckooshrikes in the flowering Eucalypts across the road. An Australian Hobby perched briefly on the wires, and Welcome Swallows flew up and down the road verges. The parrot returned and obligingly perched again on the wires; a Blue Winged Parrot.

Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens

2/12/2011

I flew into Hobart at lunchtime, met Maureen at the airport and picked up the rental car, a budget-wise Corolla hatch, checked into our Sandy Bay Motel and headed for the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens beneath a grey drizzling sky. The eucalypt woodland of the Domain gave us our first birds, the Tasmanian subspecies of the Australian Magpie, Noisy Miner, and Silvereye, as well as a large group of Eastern Rosellas. In the gardens, clouds of Silvereye foraged in the flowering prunus, Yellow and Little Wattlebirds called raucously, and Forest Ravens strutted across the lawns, but the most common bird was the Eurasian Blackbird, collecting worms for young cheeping from the denser bushes. We don’t have them on the Central Coast (yet) so found their busyness interesting to watch. Adding to the ‘Little England’ feel were Goldfinch, Starlings, House Sparrows and Skylarks looking at home among the majestic oak, elm and birch trees. A highlight of the gardens for me was the wonderful Sub-Antarctic House, a re-creation of the Macquarie Island environment.

Tasmania has twelve endemic species, and we were hoping to photograph them all during the stay, but as the drizzle turned to rain, we headed back to the motel to consult the weather gods and our maps.

• Tasmanian native hen Gallinula mortierii
• Green rosella Platycercus caledonicus
• Dusky robin Melanodryas vittata
• Tasmanian thornbill Acanthiza ewingii
• Scrubtit Acanthornis magnus
• Tasmanian Scrubwren Sericornis humilus
• Yellow wattlebird Anthochaera paradoxa
• Yellow-throated honeyeater Lichenostomus flavicollis
• Black-headed honeyeaterMelithreptus affinus
• Strong-billed honeyeater Melithreptus validirostris
• Black currawong Strepera fuliginosa
• Forty-spotted pardalote Pardalotus quadragintus

There are also a number of species which are endemic at the subspecies level, such as the threatened Wedge-tail Eagle, and species which are known as breeding endemics, including the endangered Orange-bellied Parrot and the Swift Parrot, that breed in Tasmania but migrate to the mainland.

Toukley

Given the non-stop rain, there would seem to be little need for a bird-bath, but I was pleased to see these visitors to my garden, Little Corellas and Rainbow Lorikeet. Eastern Rosellas first attracted my attention, but they didn’t wait for me to grab the camera.

Soldier’s Point

One good tern deserves another. The Great Crested Terns look good in their spring plumage, crests raised to impress the opposite sex.  White-fronted Terns winter here are are about to leave, while Common Terns are just arriving from the northern hemisphere.

Chain Valley Bay

Red Wattle Bird

Red-browed Firetail

Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo

Pink Matchheads (Comesperma ericinum)

Feeling very much like spring on our walk today.

Ourimbah

The Cattle Egret is apparently a relatively recent colonist of Australia from Asia, with the first birds recorded in the Northern Territory in 1948. Since then they have spread to most of the continent. There are large breeding colonies around here on the Central Coast and Hunter Valley.

Warner’s Bay

Early for an appointment at Warner’s Bay, I sat and watched the Little Corellas playing birdy games. Around sixty birds were hanging out between the lake and the road, digging for grubs and just mucking about.