Having just returned from a southern work trip I can say that House
Sparrows appear to be faring well in the settled parts of Tasmania.
Blackbirds were also thick on the ground. I don't particularly like
Common Starlings, but I did appreciate watching several swirling
clouds of the pests. There were also large flocks of Goldfinches in
rural areas.
I didn't do much in the way birding - although I did target two
endemics. The 40 Spots were easy to find by the car park at the
Penryhn Ponds end of Peter Murrell Reserve, and I found some Dusky
Robins near Arthur River [at a site that John Tongue kindly put me on
to.] The Duskies were a classic case of field guide confusion. I was
using P&K 7 which for some reason suggested that DRs have mid-brown
underparts and a pale supercilium. Of course the birds I saw had pale
underparts and no supercilium, so I had to go on size, behaviour, the
lack of any red breasted individuals [and the lack of the pale lores
one normally sees on "red" robins].
Overall, I would have to say that Tassie in winter is rather quiet on
the birding front. Masked Lapwings were present in large numbers
[including a group of 20+] clustered at one point and there were large
numbers of Kelp & Pacific Gulls. Tassie Hens were common roadside
browsers and seemed to be more switched on in relation to road safety
than their mammalian relations. The unhealthy supply of roadkill meant
that there were lots of corvids. For some reason, Tasmanian
Wedgetails don't seem to have taken to roadside carrion the way their
outback brethren have.
Generally the bush birds were few and far between. The interesting
exception was Friday - my last morning before boarding the return
plane. I popped up Mt Wellington to have a gekko at the big dump of
snow that had fallen during my conference - the sky was a nice azure
and there was no wind. The road was closed because of ice at the
springs, so I went for a bit of a stroll before the tourists came in
their busloads - in a short period of time I saw Tas Scrubwrens, a
Scrubtit, a Pink Robin, some Flame Robins and the local race of
Silvereyes.
As for a drought report, the south-east coast is very dry -
particularly around Swansea. Things get green from St Helens and the
north coast was very green, particularly in the north-west corner.
The western rivers had reasonable flows, but a long way from high flows.
The Road to Nowhere was closed [due to fallen trees] but the drive
from Savage River to Corinna was very nice [I'd stay at Corinna if I
had more time as the Pieman River is very nice and quiet]. White-
tailed Cockies seemed to be the only treechange residents at
Queenstown ...
----- Original Message ----
From: Rosemary Royle <>
To: Syd Curtis <>; bird <>
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 7:09:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Sparrows
I am fascinated that House Sparrows are becoming scarce in urban
areas in Australia, just like they are in the UK. They seem OK here
in rural areas and are even increasing in some of these (e.g.
Scotland, Wales)
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