Dear Friends, I wanted to first of all thank each of you for your words of welcome to two transplants from the US and all the wonderful birding advice we have received from this forum. What an amazing set of birds you have here! I still can’t get over the Gang-Gang and Yellow-Tailed Blacks in my neighborhood! Not to mention the White Phase Grey Goshawk perched in the forest behind our house. All these amazing birds with very little effort spent. What beauties! I can’t wait till we actually have a chance to put some time and effort into the birding. We have had a heck of a time getting settled and barely even scratched the surface of what there is to see here locally in Sydney. Yet, through very fortunate circumstance we will have the opportunity to spend a week in Tasmania starting on the 4th of April. It may be our only chance to visit–and we are eager to be sure to hit as many of the best birding spots we can. We will be staying in Hobart, but have the opportunity to spend two nights elsewhere and have a car at our disposal as well. If you were us, where would you go? Where are the best places to find the endemics? Are there any B&B’s oriented to birders/outdoor adventure types that are not in the Hobart area? What else would you be sure to see/do while you were there? Anyway, any and all advice would be most welcome. Feel free to send it privately, but if you think it will benefit others, perhaps the rest of the list would enjoy it too. Many thanks in advance, Kai *Kai Schraml* +61 (0) 459 695 644 Cell +61 (0) 245 677 947 Home kaischraml@gmail.com Whitehawk Bower 17 Stanley Avenue Kurrajong Heights, NSW 2758 Australia _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
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4 responses to “A Short Trip to Tasmania”
We found 40-spotted very easily at McCracken’s Gully on Bruny (we reckoned it was 2km from the turn off, not the 3km mentioned in Thomas & Thomas!). Scrubtit we found in the lower part of the Mt Mangana walk – dipped at Pipeline. On 28 March 2014 09:47, Jeremy O’Wheel <owheelj@gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Hi Kai, It’s possible to see all the endemics in a day from around Hobart. I’d recommend the following places; Bruny Island for at least a day. You should see many of the endemics here (all are possible), but the specific one to look out for is the Forty-spotted Pardalote. Inala is a birding/wildlife tour company that has a property with forty-spots on it, so that’s often the best place to go. http://www.inalabruny.com.au/. Swift Parrots are a good chance at Bruny too, although I’m guess they must be ready to leave soon. Port Arthur for the Tasmanian Masked Owls, as mentioned. They’re usually considered a subspecies, but I assume that Owls of the World gives them full species status. Peter Murrell Reserve (Kingston) for any endemics that you miss on Bruny. You can get 40 spots here too, but it’s harder than Bruny. Pipeline Track from Fern Tree is probably the best place for Scrubtit and Tas Thornbill, which are mainly found in rainforest (or mixed forest with rainforest under-storey), any of the walking around Mt Wellington should be ok for these. You’ll have a 99% chance of getting Black Currawong at higher elevations around the mountain. The wetter walks to the South of the mountain are best. Other than those places for endemics, I’d recommend Goulds Lagoon in Granton (northern suburbs of Hobart), which is a great small wetlands, where you have a chance of all the crakes, as well as Lewin’s Rail, and there are some Freckled Ducks there at the moment, that have been there fore a year now. Swift Parrots are also possible. Orielton Lagoon between Midway Point and Sorell is good for migratory waders (take Shark Point Rd) and cross the fence at the sty and sign past the golf course. It’s a bit of a trek but Cockle Creek is a good trip for Ground Parrots, as well as Southern Emu-wren, and there’s a chance of the Tas subspecies of Azure Kingfisher. If you can, you could book flights to Melaluca. Orange-bellied Parrots are still there (but you may want to check again before booking flights). This is basically the only place where you’re likely to see them in the wild, but they’ll be migrating soon. Hope that helps and best of luck. If you find yourself dipping on a specific endemic and running out of time, feel free to email me and I’ll give you my best spots, but I imagine you should get them all without too much trouble 🙂 Cheers, Jeremy On 27 March 2014 20:46, Kai <kaischraml@gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
I went recently with 3 friends – we stayed one night in Hobart and 2 nights at Port Arthur – not the best place for birds but there was a Masked Owl supposed to be there and we found it fairly easily. Our only dip was the local race of Boobook which some authorities split. We had a day trip to Bruny where we got 40 Spotted and Scrubtit – we picked up the rest of the endemics easily at Peter Murrell and on Mt Wellington. Sorry for brief response but in a hurry – can give more details to anyone interested later today On 27 March 2014 20:46, Kai <kaischraml@gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
I haven’t been to Tassie for a decade or more, sadly, because it is a truly gorgeous place. But Bruny Island, not far from Hobart, used to be very good for many of the endemics, including the 40-spot paradalo, and there was a very across from the mainland. No doubt some real locals with genuine knowledge can tell you a lot more, but its a lovely trip and a beautiful spot Kim Kim Sterelny, School of Philosophy, Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, 0200, ACT, Australia Kim.Sterelny@anu.edu.au or Kim.Sterelny@vuw.ac.nz 61-(0)2-6125-2886 ________________________________________ Sent: Thursday, 27 March 2014 8:46 PM Dear Friends, I wanted to first of all thank each of you for your words of welcome to two transplants from the US and all the wonderful birding advice we have received from this forum. What an amazing set of birds you have here! I still can’t get over the Gang-Gang and Yellow-Tailed Blacks in my neighborhood! Not to mention the White Phase Grey Goshawk perched in the forest behind our house. All these amazing birds with very little effort spent. What beauties! I can’t wait till we actually have a chance to put some time and effort into the birding. We have had a heck of a time getting settled and barely even scratched the surface of what there is to see here locally in Sydney. Yet, through very fortunate circumstance we will have the opportunity to spend a week in Tasmania starting on the 4th of April. It may be our only chance to visit–and we are eager to be sure to hit as many of the best birding spots we can. We will be staying in Hobart, but have the opportunity to spend two nights elsewhere and have a car at our disposal as well. If you were us, where would you go? Where are the best places to find the endemics? Are there any B&B’s oriented to birders/outdoor adventure types that are not in the Hobart area? What else would you be sure to see/do while you were there? Anyway, any and all advice would be most welcome. Feel free to send it privately, but if you think it will benefit others, perhaps the rest of the list would enjoy it too. Many thanks in advance, Kai *Kai Schraml* +61 (0) 459 695 644 Cell +61 (0) 245 677 947 Home kaischraml@gmail.com Whitehawk Bower 17 Stanley Avenue Kurrajong Heights, NSW 2758 Australia _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org