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Tony,
Flinders Island is the largest island in Bass Strait, situated
at the Eastern end of the strait in the Furneaux Group.
In 1995 I saw the Chukars at a place called Badger Corner,
just west of Lady Barron at the southern end of the island. As I was
watching them from the road, a local landholder rode up on a motorbike and asked
what I was doing. (It was a public road so I wasn't trespassing.)
When I told him I was birdwatching, he said to me unsmilingly
that if I was to wander off the road I would, "Most likely be shot."
He then drove away to his shed and conspicuously sat there watching me till I
left the area.
Quite a different reaction than I had on King Island a year
before (King Island is at the western end of Bass Strait) where the locals were
virtually falling over themselves to tell me where to go to see the best birds.
I know which island I (and my tourist dollars) will be returning to next
time.
Quite a difference from the
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