During the NSW school holidays I had a holiday in Tasmania. Essentially it
was touring with birding thrown in so it took most of the two weeks to get
all the endemics plus most of the Tasmanian races of mainland birds.
Starting in Launceston, Tasmanian Native Hens were pretty much everywhere.
At Hadspen, near Launceston, I saw Yellow Wattlebird (but I’m still missing
the one’s seen here in Orange).
In the Tasmanian Arboretum near Devonport I saw more Tasmanian Native Hens
plus Black Headed, Strong Billed and Yellow Throated Honeyeaters. Black
Headed and Yellow Throated Honeyeaters tended to be in many places later on
including Wynyard, Freycinet NP and around Peter Murrell Reserve. Living in
Orange with White Eared Honeyeaters, the similarity between them and the
Yellow Throated is uncanny, even down to the call. I’d hear the ‘chook
chook’ of the White Eared and think, “no, this can’t be Tassie, I’m hearing
White Eareds calling”.
I saw my first Green Rosellas around north-west Tasmania near Smithton and
then in several places after that. At Wynyard I saw the Tasmanian form of
the Brown Thornbill.
At Hellyer Gorge, south of Wynyard, I got Tasmanian Thornbills and Tasmanian
Scrubwrens. I got the Tasmanian form of the Grey Currawong in north-east
Tassie at Bridport. It is so much darker than the Grey Currawongs we have
here and it really does look like a Pied Currawong.
Yellow and Little Wattlebirds, Crescent and New Holland Honeyeaters and
Scarlet Robins were all over the place in Freycinet NP. Three Hooded Plovers
were along the beach near Coles Bay.
At Peter Murrell Reserve near Hobart I got the Forty Spotted Pardalote and
Dusky Robin. The Forty Spotted Pardalote was actually quite easy to see and
I had three in a tree about four metres up working around the trunk. When I
got back to the car there was another pardalote about a metre off the ground
in a small tree. There were large numbers of Spotted Pardalotes here as
well.
Black Currawongs were seen at the Tahune Forest Air Walk near Geeveston
south of Hobart in the Huon Valley. At the Hastings Caves visitor centre I
saw a female and male Pink Robin, which were very happy to hop around on
tree stumps and logs about three metres away from me. At the caves
themselves a lyrebird was calling in the undergrowth.
My final bird was a single Scrubtit at Fern Glade at the bottom of Mount
Wellington along with some more Tasmanian Scrubwrens.
Steve Gross
Orange NSW
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