I've forwarded this on from the beaut 2 New Yorkers.
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Sid and Sharon Genaux <> wrote:
Hi everyone,
When we went to Tasmania, we didn't have a lot of
solid plans (why change our mode of operation now).
However, there were two things we knew we were going
to do while we were there. One was to go birding on
South Bruny Island and the other was to take the tour
of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory near Hobart.
All of Tasmania's twelve endemic species can be found
on Bruny Island. Endemic means that they are found
only in one geographic area, in this case Tasmania. We
had arranged for Sharon to go birding with Tonia
Cochran
at Inala, her property on South Bruny Island while Sid
relaxed. We met her at 8:00 a.m. and Sharon went for a
three hour walk through the various habitats on Inala.
I had already seen Tasmanian Native Hens, Green
Rosellas, Tasmanian Scrubwrens, and Black Currawongs
earlier in the trip. It was a lovely morning and the
birding was very successful. Tasmanian Native Hens
were running around on the lawn beside the driveway.
Tonia
took me right to the area where there is a colony of
Forty-Spotted Pardalotes, a lovely little bird which
is an endangered species. While we looked for them, we
saw Strong-billed Honeyeaters, another of the
endemics.
Soon the pardolotes showed up and we got good looks at
them. We walked through the woods and got a great look
at a beautiful Yellow-throated Honeyeater and some
Tasmanian Thornbills. There were also some families of
Dusky Robin around. Although I had seen Green Rosellas
flying beside the road earlier, I got a much better
look at them at Inala. By the time our walk was done,
I had seen 9 of the 12 endemics. I later saw Yellow
Wattlebird and Black-headed Honeyeater at the caravan
park. I never caught up with a Scrubtit, but that
gives us a reason to go back!
The next day, we left Bruny Island and went north
again to Hobart. We had booked a tour of the Cadbury
Factory for that morning. It was a chocoholic's dream
come true! We were guided through the factory and
shown how the candy is made. We saw vats of chocolate
big enough to swim in (slight exaggeration). We
watched them make Cherry Ripe bars, Freddo Frogs,
Turkish Delight bars, and lots more. Even better, we
got samples of a lot of different types of Cadbury
candies. Some of it was not wrapped yet so we were
obliged to eat it on the spot, but there were also
quite a few wrapped samples to take home with us. Then
we stopped at the factory store!
They had all kinds of chocolates on sale at very low
prices. It was wonderful! We even bought a 5 kilo (11
lb.) box of assorted chocolates to take home for the
staff of the Hastings Library. Having worked at a
library, Sharon knows that they run on chocolate, so
we knew that the staff could use it.
Got to quit for now.
Have to think of selling the car and caravan now and
even more sadder thoughts.
Thanks for your e-mails.
Hugs,
Sid and Sharon,
=====
Get to actually see the birds of Western Port Bay and
French Island with H²olly Homes Birding.
phone: 59 79 3709
e-mail:
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