Hi Folks,
Recently my wife was casually jotting down a list of birds we have had visit
our suburban garden over the last 18 years, and "treecreeper" popped up.
Neither of us thought any more or less of this, we enjoy all the birds and
are quite excited when something new appears, bird or otherwise - stick
insects, praying mantises, mole crickets all get big smiles!
Anyway, I was asked the other day whether little wattlebirds just ate
nectar, I thought they'd be a bit less choosy but wasn't sure so checked. As
I had the guide open I thought I'd check to see which treecreeper we were
likely to have seen based on Tassie's limited share of most groups and was
surprised to find that none are officially recorded, hence my search and
your notes from 2007 coming up.
The first occasion was reasonably memorable; my wife saw an unfamiliar bird
on the trunk of the liquidambar, which grew only c.1.5 metres from our
living room window, and called me over to look and offer an identification.
I said straight away it was a treecreeper, and we watched it nimbly forage
amongst the gnarled trunks bark furrows for a while. I didn't follow up as
far as any further species identification, but from memory it was a slender
house sparrow size greyish brown and possibly some darker longitudinal
flecks in the upper plumage. This would have been between late 1990's to
2002. We didn't take a photo - pre the convenience of digital cameras. I
have a zoological background and have been a reasonably keen naturalist most
of my life; had the known distribution of any of the treecreepers included
Tasmania, even as sporadic vagrants, I'd happily claim certainty that it was
a treecreeper, but given what I have learned today, would drop that back to
80% - nothing else springs remotely to mind. I just asked my wife how many
times she reckoned we / she'd seen them, her answer was, "oh, not many, a
couple maybe?" We'll certainly keep an extra alert should we see one again
and of course try for a photo. Unfortunately we had to remove the
liquidambar in April this year - it was planted far too close to the house
and was beginning to cause structural concerns, as well as shading the
recently installed solar panels in the afternoon, the remaining silver
birches are probably not as likely to attract, but we'll watch anyway.
Last year we had a resident pallid cuckoo for the first time, and have heard
one in the neighbourhood again this spring. That seemed far more unusual at
the time!
Kind regards,
Graeme Greenwood
5 Erina St
East Launceston TAS
Ph (03) 6334 5620
Mob 0439 760 169
Fax (03) 6312 5005
Skype graeme.greenwood5
www.mapmakers.com.au <http://www.mapmakers.com.au/>
<http://www.mapmakers.com.au/>
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