Phil Robinson of South Hobart e-mailed the following to the 'Birds in Tasmania' blog: My wife, Jenny and I were excited to see "new" (for us) birds at Cape Bruny yesterday (Sunday), which turned out to be a pair of Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters. However, I gather this is a good place for them. Interestingly, looking at all our bird books with photos and paintings, there doesn't seem to be a good picture showing the tawny crown. The books show it dull. So...., a challenge for bird photographers. We have just starting to look at the blog and are very impressed by the quality of the photographs. My sister in the UK, (Carol Inskipp) is too. She and her husband, keen English birders, have visited and written a number of books on the birds of Butan, Nepal and the Indian sub continent.
We also saw a family (mother, father and baby) of White-fronted Chats, Flame Robin ( male and female) and a pair of Yellow-rumped Thornbills, along with sparrows and Blue Wrens, all from the inside of the car at the car park in front of the old lighthouse keepers' houses.
Another interesting bird we haven't often seen is the colourful Spotted Quail-thrush. It is common to see them around WinterWater Wall (yes, I climb), near Bluestone Bay. Again I haven't seen a good photo, although I haven't checked all the months on the site.
[Ed: Thank you for your comments, Phil. I have both the Tawny-crowned and the Quail-thrush on my list of birds to photograph, but suspect the Quailthrush may prove to be the more difficult, by far. A difficult species to find at the best of times, there appears to be far fewer about these days, so I'd be interested to hear from anyone who can provide details of where to reliably find them.]
We have some very sub-standard shots of tawny-crowned honeyeaters from Arthur River. They are a stunning bird, that the books don't do justice to. They are also a bird we don't often see. So is the Spotted Quail-thrush. We have had a fleeting glimpse of ONE in Tassie - on the walk through 'Bangor', Dunalley, to Tasman's Monument. If the site Phil mentions at Bluestone Bay IS reliable for them, I'm sure folk at Birds-tas would be interested, as there have been a few outings lately attempting to find some, but with no success. We hope to go there and look for some soon. Any suggestions about where to look, Phil??
ReplyDeleteThe quail-thrush is certainly getting harder to find here on the mainland, I spotted my first pair for quite a while recently, and got a picture of sorts, not easy!
ReplyDeletehttp://bencruachan.org/blog/?p=179