G'day Chris,
Great report - particularly liked the final sentence! :)
The Bittern sighting particularly is notable, and certainly worth reporting to
Birdline Tasmania (not that being a moderator makes me impartial).
Cheers,
John Tongue
Ulverstone, Tas.
On 23/04/2013, at 4:21 PM, Chris Lloyd wrote:
> My partner and I have just completed a trip to Tasmania with my ancient bird
> watching parents. Nothing strenuous and as much a bit of nostalgia for both
> them and me as the latter had bushwalked the state in the 1940s and I
> started the same practice in the 1970s. I used Tim Dolby's excellent January
> trip report for some pointers but otherwise we drifted in a leisurely
> fashion around the state. There were a couple of intriguing sightings which
> we all thought were worth a mention.
>
>
>
> The first was the appearance of an Australasian Bittern in the button grass
> swamp just above Strahan airport. The bird was flushed immediately adjacent
> to the road to Ocean Beach and appeared to have the paler plumage of a
> juvenile. Binoculars were superfluous as the bird did its characteristic
> lumbering take off from the one metre grass and dropped about ten metres
> away. I flushed it again at the cost of some wet boots and again it appeared
> to have a juvenile plumage. The bird disappeared about twenty five metres
> further away. In forty years of travelling and bushwalking in the south west
> I had no come across the species before. Does anyone know if it is
> relatively common in this area?
>
>
>
> The second sighting was small flocks of Needletails on the road from Strahan
> to Zeehan. This was the only place were saw them and I wondered when they
> usually left for the breeding grounds.
>
>
>
> Forty Spotteds were hard to nail down on Bruny in the usual places but we
> did catch up with them briefly in Peter Murrell.
>
>
>
> The final sighting(s) were the huge number of silvereyes in all locations
> from the early snow on Mt. Field and Cradle to the warm east coast. There
> abundance was probably not unusual but none of them seemed to be moving
> north and we noted in the Derwent and Bruny large flocks actually going
> south at altitude. Any comments?
>
>
>
> I got a few enquiries from a couple of the local tourism offices about bird
> routes and lists (there does not seem to be the same proliferation that
> exists on the mainland) but I am sure there are far more competent locals
> who could generate these. One office was particularly interest in having
> more information on the Shy-type albatross that a commonly seen inshore.
>
>
>
> The trouble with going to Tasmania is that you don't want to come back..
>
>
>
>
>
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