Hello All,
Earlier this month my adult daughter Anna and I spent a fortnight in the
spectacular and awesome vastness of the World Heritage listed South West
wilderness area of Tasmania. We lived and worked from a shack near the
Birches River, which flows into Birches Inlet and then into Macquarie
Harbour. The shack is the base for a release and monitoring site of the
ORANGE-BELLIED PARROT (OBP). The fortnight we were there we did not see
another soul, and apart from a nightly safety radio report-in, hardly spoke
to another soul. The opportunity to spend over 30 hours of close observation
of OBPs, and making some notes for the records of this worthwhile project,
was very satisfying. Details on this project can be found on various
websites including:
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/tas/features/gallery_orange_bellied_parrot.htm
The setting was certainly world class. There were towering mountains, misty
gorges and mist and tree shrouded creeks, towering bluffs and abrupt
escarpments, rugged plateaus bisected by wooded gullies and spreading and
vast plains and swampland of Button Grass and a multitude of other herbage
forming a wonderful tapestry of flowering plants. All this spread out with a
marvellous sense of space and ever changing character with the passing of
the day and the weather changes. It is the home of some very special animals
too - including the OBP. It was great to walk through all this variety of
landscape, and we particularly enjoyed one fine day an eight hour 35 km hike
along the Low Rocky Point Track.
There were also impenetrable thickets of Tea Tree and associated plants, and
in places one could penetrate into the understory of Beech Forests, hoary
with age and fallen mammoths moss and lichen covered, and ferns and
associated plants like a wonderful garden. It was great to see such
wonderful trees as the Beech/Myrtles, Black-hearted Sassafras, Huon Pine and
various species of giant eucalypts. The OBP's however, made their home in
the Button-grass plains and flats, and nested in the copses and little
islands of eucalypts to be found scattered over the plains and in some of
the gorges that broke into the plateaus.
While the area does not have a large number of bird species, there are some
very special birds to be found here. The many sightings of OBPs, of which
there are only about 200 - 250 in the wild now, were the most significant.
However, it was always riveting to freeze and get a view of a flushed GROUND
PARROTS, with their silent, quick flight and sudden disappearance into the
low, dense herbage. There were some good sights of them though. One
memorable one was when a GROUND PARROT landed in a bush with the morning sun
on its back - the mottled black and yellow/green of its head and back was
breathtaking.
We enjoyed some other special birds here too, all of them endemic
sub-species or species of Tasmania. One of the more memorable, were several
encounters with the most delightful, at times so shy and at times so
confiding, little SOUTHERN EMU-WREN. With their blush of pastel blue to the
male's throat and to their striated brown backs and rufous underside and
trailing 'Emu feather' tails they would pop up onto Button-grass or stunted
tree stems, or in some giant rushes. In the depths of the towering forest,
we enjoyed a male PINK ROBIN, so startlingly pink and black in the subdued
lighting, softly calling as it accompanied us for a time in our wander in
his world. I thought we also saw a BASSIAN THRUSH here, but could not get a
second sighting in the twilight of the forest to verify it. We did get to
see a reclusive OLIVE WHISTLER though, silently looking at us and then
flittering away into the enclosing forest. Skulking in thickets we saw
TASMANIAN SCRUBWREN, and in the isolated islands of trees at the heads of
gullies and on island rises in the plains, we saw TASMANIAN THORNBILL. There
were some wonderful sights of YELLOW-TAILED BLACK COCKATOO. One
unforgettable one was seeing close up this startling large black parrot
feeding in the top of a profusely flowering and strikingly crimson,
Tasmanian Waratah - what a contrast. We encountered, on one of our dinghy
trips down the creek, a flock of STRONG-BILLED HONEYEATER. YELLOW-THROATED
HONEYEATER were common and they with the CRESCENT HONEYEATER, were the most
common birds around, and their cheerful calls made up the bulk of the
delightful dawn chorus.
There were a range of other more common birds to be seen too, such as
nesting TREE MARTINS & WELCOME SWALLOWS. On the waterways there were BLACK
SWAN, AUSTRALIAN WOOD DUCK & LITTLE PIED CORMORANT. Raptors included SWAMP
HARRIER & BROWN FALCON. We flushed several LATHAM SNIPES from some small,
grassy ponds on the plains and flats. More ordinary bush birds included
BRUSH BRONZEWING, FAN-TAILED AND HORSFIELD'S BRONZE-CUCKOO, GOLDEN WHISTLER,
GREY SHRIKE-THRUSH, GREY FANTAIL, BLACK-FACED CUCKOO-SHRIKE, CRESCENT & NEW
HOLLAND HONEYEATERS, AND FOREST RAVEN. We also came across several pairs of
the endemic GREEN ROSELLA. There were also good numbers of BLUE-WINGED
PARROTS, of which we had good sightings as they fed with the OBPs. A
SOUTHERN BOOBOOK was heard calling one night.
I had hoped to see some BEAUTIFUL FIRETAIL here too, but they did not
conveniently appear for us to see them. We had heard that the rather rare
subspecies of the AZURE KINGFISHER nested in this area, and I was also
hopeful of seeing it, but we missed it too.
We enjoyed wonderful views early one morning of an EASTERN QUOLL, and had
several clear views of BROAD-TOOTHED RATS, and some passing sightings of
TASMANIAN DEVIL & COMMON WOMBAT. The SWAMP ANTECHINUS is found in this area,
and I searched with spotlight several nights looking for one, but was not
successful - the same for SWAMP RAT. With all the insects to be found here,
I thought we would encounter some bats, but I did not see one.
Invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians were also of much interest, and it
was satisfying to use the guides and reference books seeking to identify
them. I particularly enjoyed observing the many breeding frogs here,
including the COMMON FROGLET, TASMANIAN FROGLET & SMOOTH FROGLET. There were
striking fly-bys in the morning sun of MACLEAY'S SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES,
with their wonderful lime-green and black filigree markings.
It was a great time, not only for contributing to the conservation of OBP,
but a real privilege to enjoy this wonderful part of the world and for me,
to enjoy a dad and daughter time together as pals and fellow explorers!
I trust that the holiday season and new year ahead will be a safe and happy
one for all.
Regards,
Chris Coleborn
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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