TASMANIA August 1999

A three day trip is all you need to see the Tassie endemics - even without rushing terribly much! Recently a group of seven Melbournites ventured over the Bass Strait (in a plane) for a three day weekend in August. I wanted to see all the endemics, a couple of others were in quest of one or two and yet others just wanted to refresh their memories. A Swift Parrot in the airport carpark was a good omen. I've certainly never seen a Swifty like that before. Best bird for me was the Masked Owl. All I can say is, woo-hoo!! We based ourselves in Hobart from where we journeyed out to a few different sites:

Mount Wellington
Hobart is overshadowed by this impressive mountain, which as we found is also home to a healthy avifauna. In the rainforest here we wanted to see the Scrubtit, Tasmanian Thornbill and Tasmanian Scrubwren, all of which we found without difficulty. I noticed the rainforest appears somewhat less floristically diverse than similar temperate mainland forest but still fabulous nonetheless. We also encountered Black Currawong, Green Rosella and a few more widespread species. There's a pullover on the right as you're about halfway up the mountain where a nature walk starts - this is where we birded. (If you go past a pub and shops on the left a bit further up, you've gone too far).

Peter Murrell Reserve
I really liked this little nature reserve.You can find it by heading out of Hobart on the Channel Highway towards Kingston. It's right next to the Vodaphone call centre. There's a small lake on your right as you pull in and we found Forty-spotted Pardalotes feeding in the Manna gum on the far side of this. I also spotted a Platypus in the lake. We found Yellow-throated Honeyeater and Black-headed Honeyeater to be pretty common. Later on Diana and I glimpsed a Swamp (Brown) Quail as it crossed the path in a heathy area. They were calling all over the place.

Bruny Island
On Sunday we rose early to catch the first ferry over to Bruny Island. We had intended to go to Maria but rumours of large penguins prompted a change of heart amongst some of the die-hards. I didn't really care - I just wanted to see a Dusky Robin and a Strong-billed Honeyeater. Found them, not a problem. Rather predictably we didn't find any penguins, though I saw one off the side of the ferry just as it dived! We also found an Oriental Plover at Cloudy Bay, that made up for the penguins. There are very few records of this species in Tasmania. Coincidentally, Simon Kennedy (of Swift Parrot fame) independently found the same bird a couple of hours after we had departed!

Eaglehawk Pelagic
This is Chris' trip report (he says it best...)
TASMANIA BOAT TRIP - 17/10/1999
On Board: Denis Abbott, Sue Baker, John Barkla, Diana Bryant, Gabrielle Harrison, Chris Lester, Jann Mulholland, Ross Mulholland, Susan Myers, Richard Nowotny, Tim Reid, Fred Smith, Bill Wakefield, Maggie Wakefield

Conditions: Left at 8 am and returned at 4 pm. In the morning, it was relatively calm with slight chop and waves about a metre. Wind was fresh at 15 knots from the NE. Chop increased over the day with some 2-3 m waves in the afternoon as the breeze freshened to 15-20 kts with gusts of 25 kts. There was no swell. The expected SW change did not arrive. The weather was fine and mostly sunny all day. We travelled the 14 nautical miles out to the shelf to the NE of Eagle Hawk Neck and some 4nm beyond it. We then went S initially outside the shelf and then along it, visited the Hippolytes to the SW of EHN and returned along the shore.

Highlights: The number of Southern Fulmars was exciting as was the Black-bellied Storm-Petrel. However, the sheer number of Short-tailed Shearwaters was staggering. They occupied a band about 3-4 nm wide just before the shelf. This band extended for the length of our whole trip along the shelf and, presumably, a whole lot further. Our estimate was that there were more than a million birds. Amazing spectacle.

Birds: Most seen at once, Estimated Total
Little Penguin 1 1
Common Diving-Petrel 1 3
Southern Giant-Petrel 1 2
Northern Giant-Petrel 4 10
SOUTHERN FULMAR 1 5
Cape Petrel 10 25
Great-winged Petrel 2 4
all r. macroptera
Fairy Prion * 40 200
White-chinned Petrel 3 8
Sooty Shearwater 1 10
Short-tailed Shearwater 50,000 100,000s
Wandering Albatross 3 12
r. exulans
Royal Albatross 1 3
r. epomophora
Black-browed Albatross 2 6
one r. impavida
Shy Albatross 30 60
two r. salvini
Yellow-nosed Albatross 2 6
Wilson?s Storm-Petrel 25 40
Grey-backed Storm-Petrel 2 5
BLACK-BELLIED STORM-PETREL 1 1
Australasian Gannet # 30 50
Black-faced Cormorant # 100 120
White-bellied Sea-Eagle # 2 2
Peregrine Falcon # 1 1
Pacific Gull 2 5
Kelp Gull # 10 15
Silver Gull # 3 10
Crested Tern 2 5
White-fronted Tern 7 10
* A probable Salvin's Prion was also seen
# Mostly on the Hippolytes or in-shore
Mammals: Australian Fur-seal