Number 84: Wineglass Bay from the Land and from the Sea

It’s early morning and I am watching the sunrise over the east coast of Tasmania in a little town called Bicheno. My legs and feet are ‘talking to me’ as yesterday we did a 15km circular hike in the Freycinet National Park.

The sweep of Wineglass Bay Beach.

Number 84:

Wineglass Bay from the Land and from the Sea.

Pared down beauty of Wineglass Bay Beach

Fred and I have quite a few favourite beach walks like Noordhoek Beach in Cape Town,  Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand and we added another to our collection. The magnificent Wineglass Bay Beach, the sand is rich in silica so it is pure white and squeaky underfoot. 

The hike starts with a steep uphill to a lookout point to see the crescent shaped Wineglass Bay with the sea a magnificent blue-green. Quite fabulous!

The name of the Bay comes from both the shape of the sea-facing bay but also from the isthmus that connects it to Hazards Beach and Oyster Bay created by the magnificent Hazards. But also from a story about the sea running red with whale blood and the whalers thought the bay looked like a glass of claret.

From the sea? Well I keep being fooled that I love the sea, I was miserable - cold and seasick and so relieved when the cruise was finished!

Number 83: An Evening Vigil for a Tasmanian Devil

Len out host at Mountain Valley Wilderness Eco-retreat, Loongana in the north-west of Tasmania, has been on his property for almost 40 years. And he knows devils!

Number 83:

An Evening Vigil for a Tasmanian Devil.

A cabin in the woods and a Tasmanian devil!

When guests are settled for the night after dinner, Len drops either chopped roadkill or chicken
in front of each cabin. The instruction is to leave the porch light on, switch off all interior lights and make no noise and keep movement to the minimum. 

The first night I did not make it past eleven and there was no sign of the pesky devil and over breakfast the rest of the gang shared their sightings with us, the Tasmanian Devils had been seen from after 11pm through to 3.30am. Oh dear...

The second night and round two of patiently waiting, this time with determination to wait out the devil. We had a roaring fire going and watched a few episodes of Australian Masterchef until midnight but still no sign of movement. We heard a screech a little while later so I stood at the window, staring out into the dark, the bits of chicken seeming to glow and eventually at 1.10am our first view of a fast moving Tasmanian Devil. A little later it popped back for the next piece of chicken. It looked at the cabin for a quick moment, we saw its face, noticed the white markings before it disappeared. 

Our mammal list now includes a wild Tasmanian Devil.

Number 82: Curious Creatures of Cradle Mountain

We took a long and slow drive across Tasmania from Bruny Island to the second destination of our Rockjumper tour with Steve; Cradle Mountain National Park.

A platypus in the wild.

Our beautiful wombat.

And her young made an appearance out of the backward facing pouch!

Number 82:

Curious Creatures of Cradle Mountain.

So excited, what a sighting!

The birds had to take a back seat as the curious creatures of Tasmania made their appearances along our travels in the Cradle Mountain National park.

A platypus seen from a low-level bridge; a Short-beaked Echidna trying to play hide-an-seek by putting its’ beak into the sand; a shy Brushtail Possum sneaking around at night; Bennetts Wallabies and the diminutive Tasmanian Pademelons feeding around us, we even saw a couple of blond Bennetts; an evening encounter with a Spotted-tail Quoll as I was walking up to our cabin, it was sitting on the steps; but the highlight has to be a female Common Wombat.

Our wombat sighting was a trip highlight, her fur was luscious and her pouch was hanging low. I had not known that wombats have back facing pouches to avoid getting mud and dirt into it. We quietly watched her rear end and the baby put it’s face out to nibble some grass!

An Echidna, too curious, what a quirky beak!

A blonde Bennet's Wallaby and a Tasmanian Pademelon

Number 81: My World Birding List hits 2000

The bird sightings on Bruny Island kept coming all day and so many were lifers too. I have been creeping to the 2000 mark ever since birding in Costa Rica and I was expecting to reach this new milestone here in Tasmania.

The shy and quiet Pink Robin of the cool temperate forest of Cradle Mountain.

Number 81:

My World Birding List hits 2000.

After a late night of walking a beach, torches in hand, to watch Little Blue Penguins come in from the sea, I was too tired to do any bird admin – noting which birds had been seen during the day, writing up the details of the sightings in my Australian Field Guide and then updating my excel IOC spreadsheet, where I keep a running list by country of the birds I have seen.

So it was early on day two that I realized that my number was 2007, I am not sure which bird was number 2000 and it will just have to remain a mystery!

Tasmania bird stats: 65 birds seen, 27 lifers and we saw all 12 endemics. We saw seabirds, shore birds, woodland birds and raptors.

Rockjumper Trip Report:

With continuing rain greeting us as we landed in Hobart, we collected the bus and set off toward Bruny Island, our base for the next two nights. Making the ferry crossing to Bruny Island in good time, the first bird we saw upon disembarking was Swift Parrot; in fact, they were seemingly everywhere in the huge flowering Blue Gums there, and in teeming rain we enjoyed our first views of this critically endangered species, a spring-summer migrant to Tas. Our first Tasmanian endemic species came in the form of a

Superb Fairywren by Roderick MacKenzie

family of Tasmanian Nativehens, and we would see many more of this chicken-like, flightless gallinule during our stay in Tasmania.
A few hours later and we were tucking into a finemeal at the Bruny Pub, ready for a good night’ssleep and for more exciting birding here tomorrow. The drive back was punctuated by sightings of Tasmanian Pademelons and Bennett’sWallabies.
Day 21: 18th October. A fine, damp and misty day
greeted us this morning but, importantly, it wasn’training! With breakfast out of the way, we set
about finding some of the island’s endemicspecies. In the tall forests, tussock woodland and
rocky coastline of beautiful Bruny Island, we
quickly racked up Black-headed Honeyeater, loud
and aggressive Yellow Wattlebirds, Dusky Robin
and the unobtrusive and critically endangered
Forty-spotted Pardalote, a major target for us here.
Also in the vicinity was a male white phase of the Grey Goshawk feeding on prey, Scarlet and Flame Robins, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, more Swift Parrot and Brush Bronzewing that were calling from all around, but remained deep within the forest. More endemics were around here too, with Strong-billed Honeyeaters prying bark from branches, stems and crotches looking for insect prey, the beautiful Green Rosella and Black Currawong.
Along the coastal areas of the island, we picked up both Sooty and Australian Pied Oystercatchers, a pair of Hooded Plover, more Black-faced Cormorant and good numbers of Kelp and Pacific Gulls. At one point, we watched as a White-bellied Sea Eagle hunted and took down a Short-tailed Shearwater just offshore.
Sadly, more wet and thundery conditions set in again this afternoon, which stymied our activities somewhat, but cleared enough that we were able to head out after dark and watch as Little Penguins came ashore along an ocean beach and headed to their burrows.
Day 22: 19th October. After a final look around Bruny, we left the island this morning, along the way hearingbut not seeing a pair of Lewin’s Rail that grunted at usfrom deep within cover. Heading to the north of Tasmania and our final accommodation for the tour, today was a travel day, so there weren’t a lot ofopportunities for stopping; but, later in the afternoon, as we drove the backroads towards our lodgings, we picked up some nice birds with Grey Currawong, Pink Robin, Tasmanian Thornbill, Olive Whistler and brief but barely satisfactory glimpses of Tasmanian Scrubwren.

Banded Stilt by John Kendall

Green Rosella by John Kendall

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Trip Report – RBL Australia - East Coast & Tasmania Ext II 2018 15

A Morepork called on dusk and was seen by a few of us, and after dark there was a carnivore-fest as Tasmanian Devils and Spot-tailed Quolls emerged from the forest to feed on strategically-placed morsels, much to the delight of the tour party.
Day 23: 20th October. Our destination for the day was Cradle Mountain National Park, and it was with a much more leisurely pace that we set off this morning, finding a beautiful Platypus in a clear stream along the way, as well as great looks at Yellow-throated Honeyeater, Crescent Honeyeater, the elusive Scrubtit and our final Tas endemic: a Tasmanian Scrubwren that finally gave itself up for decent views.
Cradle Mountain National Park was its usual magnificent self, although low cloud marred the scenery somewhat. Black Currawong were everywhere here it seemed, and became quite pesky when looking for handouts.
A beautiful Wombat with a young joey in the pouch was a clear standout for wildlife experience of the day, as she allowed us to approach quite closely for photographs.
The evening again offered good views of Tasmanian Devil and Spot-tailed Quoll, a fitting end to what had been a fantastic tour. The company, camaraderie and repartee had been simply excellent, and the author cannot remember such an enjoyable and cohesive group.

Pink Robin by John Kendall

And sometimes it is the common birds that create magical birding experiences.

Look at that bill, magnificent Pacific Gull, only found on the coasts of southern Australia.

Number 80: Birding Bruny Island

A Swift Parrot feeding on a Tasmanian Blue Gum

A ferry ride from Kettering and our small party of birders, guided by Steve from Rockjumper, are in the pristine native Tasmanian bush in the far south of Bruny Island. The first lifer was the Swift Parrot, listed as vulnerable, they were fast flying and in and out of the huge flowering Tasmanian Gums.

Number 80:

Birding Bruny Island.

It’s early; I am awake well before dawn listening to the dawn chorus from our Bruny Hotel cottage. The rain has abated and the anticipation for my day of birding at Inala has me excited, Christmas morning excited. The Island has all 12 of the endemics of Tasmania and I am ready for my first full day of birding.

Tonya of Inala has created a very special bush retreat, beautiful Gondwanaland gardens, hides
and a raptor feeding station. Apart from the ‘swifties’, the beautiful Swift Parrots, the target at Inala is the Forty-spotted Pardalote. A tiny bird, which does have spots, I am not sure who counted the forty.

After mugs of coffee and toasties for breakfast, we headed off to the hide, a raised platform to give views into the mid-story of the huge manna gums. And there they were, the pardalotes, easy to get onto, easy to see, which makes it hard to appreciate just how rare they are.

Our target bird, the beautiful and rare Forty-spotted Pardalote

Forty-spotted Pardalote

The Forty-spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus quadragintus) is one of Australia's rarest birds and can now only be found in south eastern Tasmania, including Bruny Island. The bird's name comes from the white spots that appear on its wings.

Habitat

The Forty-spotted Pardalote lives in dry eucalypt forests with white gums. The bird relies exclusively on the white gum trees for nesting and feeding.

Behaviour

The Forty-spotted Pardalote feeds on insects and manna of the white gum. They only nest in the white gum tree.

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