Tasmania 10/7-10/11--68 Life Birds, 4 Year Birds

BLACK CURRAWONG, Cradle Mountain

We awoke very early in Sydney in order to catch a morning flight to Launceton, Tasmania. Very early, because, and don't ask me how this works down under, they were ending Daylight Saving Time in New South Wales, they pushed their clocks ahead an hour, so we lost an hour of sleep. Fortunately, the hotel alerted us to this change and even more fortunately, Shari actually read the letter they placed in our room.

We landed in Launceton, in the northeastern quadrant of the island around 9, met our guide Karen, a lovely emigre from Scotland and immediately scored two life birds leaving the airport: BLACK-FACED CUCKOOSHRIKE and EURASIAN BLACKBIRD. Our first real stop for birding was at Tamar Island Wetlands, where we saw the proverbial BLACK SWAN.  I made a lame joke about it being a "Black Swan event" but of course, in Australia, it isn't because all the swans are black. A "Black Swan" is not a rare and unexpected occurrence. There are lots of Blacks Swans. You just have to know where to look for them. Which means, if you think about it, that the world fraught with more danger than you thought.

AUSTRALIAN SHELDUCK

We also saw our first GRAY TEAL, CHESTNUT TEAL, and the only example of AUSTRALIAN SHELDUCK that I remember seeing. We also encountered our first TASMANIAN NATIVEHEN, an endemic chicken-like bird, FOREST RAVEN, and SWAMP HARRIER, which looked and hunted very much like our Northern Harrier, to which it is related.

We also saw our first Pademelon (a marsupial, more on those below) running through the brush. We didn't get a good look at it and everyone was disappointed. Little did we know how many we'd eventually see.

CHESTNUT TEAL

Then it was north to the unpronounceable Narawntapu National Park where we saw our first real kangaroos (again, see below). We were in an area of grasslands and as you would expect in such a tan and beige landscape, most of the birds we saw there were of the annoying little brown job variety but we did add two more endemics, TASMANIAN SCRUBWREN & TASMANIAN THORNBILL, as well as two bigger birds GRAY CURRAWONG & GRAY SHRIKETHRUSH. When we saw Superb Fairywrens, we were so happy to see a bird with color that we all went crazy photographing them. And none of my photographs of those fairywrens are worth a damn.

We then turned west and drove through sheep country, stopping at various ponds where we picked up BROWN FALCON, EURASIAN SKYLARK, & HARDHEAD, an aythya species related our scaup, and no one seems to know why it has its common name. Mid-afternoon we arrived in Latrobe on the Mersey River to make what was supposed to be a quick stop to look for RUFOUS NIGHT-HERON (which we eventually found), but turned out to be quite productive, and since we also saw a platypus there which eliminated a planned stop to search for those strange animals, we spent a lot of time there. It was along the river that Shari got her first oystercatcher of the trip, the PIED OYSTERCATCHER, which looks remarkably like our American version.

Our cabin at Mountain Valley

Eventually we arrived at Mountain Valley Wilderness in Loongana on the Leven River where we stayed for two nights. Every night the owner puts bananas for the Tasmanian Devils and several in our party planned to stay up to watch for them. I was not one of them. Exhausted, I went to sleep just after dark. When I awoke around midnight, I looked out the glass door, and there, in the glow of our porch light, was a Tasmanian Devil at the foot of the stairs. I woke up Shari, who took one brief, said, "Cool," and immediately went back to bed. As did I.

We were the only ones to see the devil that night.

The next morning we were up early for a bird walk around the grounds of Mountain Valley and then, after breakfast we drove to Cradle Mountain. On the way down the mountain we saw a GREEN ROSELLA, one of Australia's many, many parrots, and farther down the road, a WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE.

GREEN ROSELLA

WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE

At Cradle Mountain the highlight was, besides the food-stealing antics of the BLACK CURRAWONGS, finding a PINK ROBIN. Robins there are really like flycatchers, but because many of the different species have shades of red on them, you can see where they got their name. 

Stringybark Tree

Stringybark Tree

The next day we began to make our way south. We stopped in the towns of Deloraine and Bothwell without finding much new besides a European Greenfinch and in some ponds along a country road we found both MUSK DUCK & AUSTRALIAN SHOVELER, as well as BANDED LAPWING, a nice break from the almost ubiquitous Masked Lapwings we'd been seeing since our arrival.  Eventually we arrived at Mt Field National Park we added YELLOW WATTLEBIRD to our list. The feature there though was the impressive eucalyptus forest. Eucalypts are the predominant tree in Australia--they're also known as gum trees--and all the eucalyptus trees around the world have their origin in Australia. In Mt Field they grow to tremendous heights and many are of the stringybark variety. The trees shed their outer barks in long, fibrous tendrils, exposing the harder wood beneath. 

New Norfolk bum

That evening we ended up staying a bed & breakfast in New Norfolk which is bisected by the River Derwent. Dinner was at the Bush Inn, Australia's Oldest Continuously Licensed Hotel,which has a long history of first Tasmanian telephone calls being made from it of which they seem inordinately proud. Everything was fine in the restaurant, though I didn't like the looks of the bum hanging around outside of it. 

FRECKLED DUCK

The next morning we continued south, stopping at Gould's Lagoon where we saw our first FRECKLED DUCKS with their pointy heads and saw one MUSK LORIKEET ("Musk" is a very popular adjective for Australian wildlife apparently.)

Black Swans in flight, note the white primaries and outer secondaries.

EASTERN ROSELLA

We stopped at a boat racing spot on the river where we got NEW HOLLAND HONEYEATER and saw Black Swans in flight (they have, surprisingly, pure white primaries), then dipped into the capital of Tasmania, Hobart, to a place called Queens Domain, where we got very nice looks at another parrot, EASTERN ROSELLA. 

We lunched at Dru Point in Kingborough, where Karen was very excited to find a COMMON BRONZEWING on a nest. I was excited to get a decent picture of it. 

COMMON BRONZEWING on nest

I photographed a bird in the grass with spots on its head that I thought was a Spotted Pardalote, turned out to be another lifer instead, YELLOW-RUMPED THORNBILL.

After lunch we went a short distance to take the ferry to Bruny Island, about a 15 minute ride. At the waterside we a BLACK-FACED CORMORANT was drying its wings as all cormorants are forced to do since they lack the water-proofing oil which nature has provided most waterbirds.

So now we were on an island off the coast of an island off the coast of an island (that happens to be a continent). Bruny Island is really two islands connected by thin sandbar that is not an isthmus but another geological terms that eludes me at the moment. We landed on the northern part of the island and continued south, picking up SWIFT PARROT, BLUE-WINGED PARROT and a host of different cuckoos along the way. 

After dinner Karen took us back to the thin connecting sandbar and onto the beach, each of us with a flashlight ("torch" in 'stralian) cover with red cellophane so as not to blind the birds we were searching for. Bruny Island has a LITTLE PENGUIN rookery, where,each night, the birds come in from the sea and sleep in the burrows they have dug out of the sand dunes. We walked a good distance under a full moon when suddenly Karen stopped, turned toward the ocean, and aimed her light at the edge of the water. It was theatrical. Deep darkness, only the sound of the water hitting the shore, a sudden light, and then, three penguins at the water's edge, TA DA!, standing there, frozen like a tableaux vivant for an instant. Then, as if awakening, they scurried up the beach past us. In the red beam of the flashlight, this is the best picture I got. It was a great moment in my birding life, right up there with seeing puffins in Canada, the piping guan in Trinidad, or the Secretarybird in South Africa. 

The next day we had to head back to Hobart to catch our plane to begin the Australian proper part of the tour. However, we still had time to get another look at Tasmania's endemic pardalot, the FORTY-SPOTTED PARDALOTE, and for Shari to feed the pademelons at Inala. 

After leaving Bruny Island, Karen took us through Kingston Beach where we had lunch and were entertained by 20 or so demonic-looking LONG-BILLED CORRELAS. She also screeched to a halt so that we could get some good looks at Galahs on the side of busy city street. By mid-afternoon we were at the Hobart Airport.

LONG-BILLED CORRELA

Galah

Karen said that her goal with a trip like ours was to get her clients 100 species. With the Long-billed Correlas she hit her number exactly. 

Species                                 First Sighting

FRECKLED DUCK    Goulds Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary

BLACK SWAN    Tamar Island Wetlands

AUSTRALIAN SHELDUCK    Tamar Island Wetlands

Maned Duck    Adventure Bay

AUSTRALIAN SHOVELER    Hollowtree Road

Pacific Black Duck    Tamar Island Wetlands

Mallard    Goulds Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary

GRAY TEAL    Tamar Island Wetlands

CHESTNUT TEAL    Tamar Island Wetlands

HARDHEAD    Oppenheims Road

MUSK DUCK    Hollowtree Road

HOARY-HEADED GREBE    Atkinsons Park

Great Crested Grebe    Shoobridge Park

Rock Pigeon    Deloraine

COMMON BRONZEWING    Dru Point

BRUSH BRONZEWING    Bruny Island

HORSFIELD'S BRONZE-CUCKOO    Cradle Mountain

SHINING BRONZE-CUCKOO    Atkinsons Park

PALLID CUCKOO    Bruny Island Main Road

FAN-TAILED CUCKOO    Bruny Island Main Road

TASMANIAN NATIVEHEN    Tamar Island Wetlands

Eurasian Coot    Atkinsons Park

Australasian Swamphen    Tamar Island Wetlands

PIED OYSTERCATCHER    Atkinsons Park

SOOTY OYSTERCATCHER    Bruny Island

BANDED LAPWING    Lyell Highway

Masked Lapwing    Launceston Airport

HOODED PLOVER    Adventure Bay

Silver Gull    Tamar Island Wetlands

PACIFIC GULL    Atkinsons Park

Kelp Gull    Shoobridge Park

Great Crested Tern    Bruny Island Ferry Crossing

LITTLE PENGUIN    Bruny Island

Australasian Gannet    Bruny Island Ferry Crossing

Little Pied Cormorant    Goulds Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary

Great Cormorant    Narawntapu National Park

Little Black Cormorant    Granton Power Boat Racing Centre

BLACK-FACED CORMORANT    Bruny Island Ferry Crossing

AUSTRALIAN PELICAN    Granton

Great Egret    Tamar Island Wetlands

WHITE-FACED HERON    Tamar Island Wetlands

Cattle Egret    Kindred

RUFOUS NIGHT-HERON    Atkinsons Park

WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE    State Forest

SWAMP HARRIER    Tamar Island Wetlands

GRAY GOSHAWK    Mountain Valley

Laughing Kookaburra    Mountain Valley

AUSTRALIAN HOBBY    Adventure Bay

BROWN FALCON    Oppenheims Road

YELLOW-TAILED BLACK-COCKATOO    Kindred

Galah    Kingston Beach

LONG-BILLED CORELLA    Kingston Beach

BLUE-WINGED PARROT    Bruny Island

SWIFT PARROT    Bruny Island

GREEN ROSELLA    Mountain Valley

EASTERN ROSELLA    Queens Domain

MUSK LORIKEET    Goulds Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary

Superb Fairywren    Tamar Island Wetlands

Noisy Miner    Goulds Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary

Little Wattlebird    Narawntapu National Park

YELLOW WATTLEBIRD    Mount Field National Park

WHITE-FRONTED CHAT    Narawntapu National Park

CRESCENT HONEYEATER    Cradle Mountain

NEW HOLLAND HONEYEATER    Granton Power Boat Racing Centre

YELLOW-THROATED HONEYEATER    Cradle Mountain

BLACK-HEADED HONEYEATER    Mountain Valley

STRONG-BILLED HONEYEATER    Mountain Valley

SPOTTED PARDALOTE    Atkinsons Park

FORTY-SPOTTED PARDALOTE    Bruny Island

STRIATED PARDALOTE    Atkinsons Park

TASMANIAN SCRUBWREN    Narawntapu National Park

Brown Thornbill    Tamar Island Wetlands

TASMANIAN THORNBILL    Narawntapu National Park

YELLOW-RUMPED THORNBILL    Dru Point

DUSKY WOODSWALLOW    Dru Point

Australian Magpie    Kingston Beach

BLACK CURRAWONG    Mountain Valley

GRAY CURRAWONG    Narawntapu National Park

BLACK-FACED CUCKOOSHRIKE    Launceston Airport

GRAY SHRIKETHRUSH    Narawntapu National Park

OLIVE WHISTLER    Mountain Valley

Golden Whistler    Mountain Valley

Gray Fantail    Tamar Island Wetlands

FOREST RAVEN    Tamar Island Wetlands

SCARLET ROBIN    Mountain Valley

FLAME ROBIN    Mountain Valley

PINK ROBIN    Mountain Valley

DUSKY ROBIN    Mountain Valley

EURASIAN SKYLARK    Oppenheims Road

Welcome Swallow    Tamar Island Wetlands

TREE MARTIN    Adventure Bay

LITTLE GRASSBIRD    Tamar Island Wetlands

Silver-eye    Tamar Island Wetlands

EURASIAN BLACKBIRD    Launceston Airport

European Starling    Launceston Airport

AUSTRALASIAN PIPIT    Narawntapu National Park

European Greenfinch    Bothwell

European Goldfinch    Atkinsons Park

House Sparrow    Deloraine

BEAUTIFUL FIRETAIL    Bruny Island