I've been to Peter Murrell countless times and have never seen one. All but
one record on Eremaea of the Tasmanian Thornbill have been from mainland
visitors, whereas many local birders appear for the Brown Thornbill. For
what it is worth, the habitat within or proximate to PM is also quite
atypical for Tas Thornbill. Whilst I won't say that they can't be found
there, myself, and others are of the view that a majority of those records
might not be correct. It is easy to make a mistake - I have done so. So
consider my comment a warning that caution is required, rather than an
accusation towards anyone in particular.
--
JJ Harrison
-----Original Message-----
From: James
Sent: Tuesday, 18 September 2012 2:50 PM
To: JJ Harrison
Cc: <>
Subject: The twelve Tasmanian endemics
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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