Peter Murrell Reserve is actually a good example of where the range of
Tasmanian and Brown Thornbill overlap. They have been recorded from this site
previously.
Good job seeing all of the endemics in such a short time Paul!
Regards
James
On 18/09/2012, at 12:27 PM, "JJ Harrison" <> wrote:
> Nice work.
>
> Not that it'd affect your record, if you saw them at Fern Tree, but I must
> admit I very much doubt the presence of a Tasmanian Thornbill at Peter
> Murrell Reserve.
>
> --
> JJ Harrison
>
>
> Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:20:00 +1000
> From: "Paul G Dodd" <>
> To: <>
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] The twelve Tasmanian endemics
> Message-ID: <>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> For those of you not interested in competitive bird-watching, now is the
> time to close this email and ignore it.
>
>
>
> I have always wondered what the record is for seeing the twelve Tasmanian
> endemics (Christidis & Boles taxonomy) in the least amount of time? This is
> from the perspective of an interstate birder visiting Tasmania, and should
> be counted from stepping off the plane at Hobart airport. To avoid any
> confusion, the twelve endemic species I am referring to are: Black
> Currawong, Black-headed Honeyeater, Dusky Robin, Forty-spotted Pardalote,
> Green Rosella, Scrubtit, Strong-billed Honeyeater, Tasmanian Native Hen,
> Tasmanian Scrubwren, Tasmanian Thornbill, Yellow Wattlebird, Yellow-throated
> Honeyeater. I have not counted the Tasmanian Boobook or Morepork nor the
> Tasmanian Masked Owl ? the boobook is split under IOC, from memory, but is
> not endemic as it is supposedly the same species as the New Zealand birds,
> and the Masked Owl has only been touted as a potential split. I?m not sure
> about the Brown Quail, but anyway, I digress.
>
>
>
> I had been told that the record for seeing these species from stepping off a
> plane at Hobart airport was five hours. Well, Ruth and I managed this feat
> in THREE hours last Saturday! We flew in on Saturday morning so that we
> could participate in the Eaglehawk Neck pelagic on Sunday. I had said to
> Ruth that we should try to get better views of the Forty-spotted Pardalote
> and also try to tick the Scrubtit, which we had dipped on previously.
> Anyway, we stepped off the plane at around 10:20am Saturday, and picked up
> our hire car before heading straight to Peter Murrell Reserve just outside
> of Kingston, near Hobart. All the roads are new since our last trip and that
> confused both me and the useless sat-nav I hired with the car. Anyway, after
> a little bit of mucking around and back-tracking, we found the reserve. In
> the carpark we immediately picked up Yellow-throated Honeyeater ? the single
> most common species at the reserve. We quickly saw a pair of Green Rosellas
> from the carpark too. We heard what we thought were Forty-spotted Pardalotes
> in and to the north of the carpark but could only get on to Striated. After
> spending about forty minutes in the carpark, we managed to add Tasmanian
> Thornbill (and Brown Thornbill) to our list, but no pardalotes, so we headed
> into the reserve, crossing the little creek and then heading south along the
> Coffee Creek Fire Trail. Behind Penrhyn Pond we found our first Yellow
> Wattlebird, but still no pardalotes. Passing Penrhyn Pond and Heron Pond we
> came across a stand of taller eucalypts, and calling strongly was a pair of
> Forty-spotted Pardalotes! In fact, not only did we get good views, but Ruth
> managed some photos of this endangered species.
>
>
>
> Walking the trail a little further, we crossed Sandflats Fire Trail and then
> reached a clearer area, and could cross the creek quite easily. In a
> previous visit we had picked up Dusky Robin here, and not to be
> disappointed, easily found Dusky Robin here again ? a pair of them, in fact.
> We headed back to Coffee Creek Fire Trail and started heading north ? almost
> immediately we had Strong-billed Honeyeaters around us ? a flock of four or
> five. We also found a Little Wattlebird in the same spot. Quite satisfied we
> started heading back to the car. I checked my watch and realized that it was
> only about 11:40. We?d been at it an hour and a half. I said to Ruth that I
> believed the record for seeing the twelve endemics was five hours ? and did
> she want to try to beat that since we now had seven of the twelve? Ruth
> suggested that she was quite up for the challenge! As we were walking back
> along the trail I mentally added up the species and I couldn?t get past
> eleven ? I couldn?t figure out which species I was missing. By now we were
> almost at the point where the path from the carpark meets Coffee Creek Fire
> Trail. Since I still couldn?t figure out which bird I?d missed, Ruth
> suggested that there must be an internet site that mentioned it ? so pulling
> out the trusty iPhone and a quick search later showed that I was missing the
> Black-headed Honeyeater ? which, coincidence of coincidences were in the
> tree above us! Phew! If we?d missed it here, I?m not sure where we would
> have found it.
>
>
>
> Now with eight of the twelve under our belt, it was time to head to Fern
> Tree in the foothills of Mount Wellington. I was sure that we?d pick up
> Tasmanian Native Hen somewhere along the way, and was actually surprised
> that we hadn?t already seen one. Driving up the hill from Hobart towards
> Fern Tree we came across a small group of obliging Black Currawongs ? this
> was the bird I was a little worried about because other than the general
> area of Mount Wellington and its foothills, I didn?t really know where to
> look. Nine ? and still we?d only been at it for two hours. BY accident, we
> drove past the spot just to the north of Fern Tree where you can park and
> walk into the forest (the usual spot that most people look for the Scrubwren
> and Scrubtit I believe). We kept driving through Fern Tree because I wasn?t
> 100% sure where we should look. Eventually we got to a wide section of the
> road on an almost hairpin bend, with a bus shelter (and porta-loo!) on one
> side of the road ? with a bubbling creek ? and a gated track on the other
> side marked ?Private Property ? Do Not Enter?. On the side with the bus stop
> and the bubbling creek we easily found Tasmanian Scrubwren (TEN!) and had a
> flock of Tasmanian Thornbills in the tree branches above us. On a whim I
> said, let?s try over the road. We walked up to the gate and sure enough,
> there were Scrubtits on the ground! One of them hopped up into a bush for
> Ruth to take a photo of (ELEVEN!) It was now 12:45 ? and all we were missing
> was the Native Hen.
>
>
>
> Heading back towards Fern Tree we decided, of all things, to stop for lunch
> at the Wildside Caf? in Fern Tree (my honest advice ? don?t bother). By now
> it was just after 1:00pm. Where were we going to find Tasmanian Native Hens.
> Then I remembered that the last time we were here, in the pouring rain, we
> visited the Waterworks Reserve, just a few minutes down the road and had
> seen the Native Hens there on the grassy areas. Sure enough, as we drove in
> to the reserve, there were TWO Tasmanian Native Hens! The time was almost
> spot on 1:20pm ? all twelve endemics accounted for in three hours!
>
>
>
> Paul Dodd
>
> Docklands, Victoria
>
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