| Birding
On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002 Emmalee Tarry |
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Tasmania |
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I drove back down to the B64 and took it south to Longley and then turned left to Kingston. I was looking for the Peter Murrell Conservation Area which was mentioned in the Lonely Planet Watching Wildlife in Australia. The directions were pretty vague. Here are more precise directions.
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From Kingston take the B68 toward Margate. Just outside
Kingston there is a rotary with a Mitre Store on the coast or left side of the
rotary. Immediately after the rotary turn left on the road to Huntingfield
(something I couldn't find on any map). Stay on this road for about a half
mile. On the left just past the Vodaphone plant is a dirt road into Peter
Murrell Conservation Area. If you come to a school you have gone too
far. Drive 100 yards down the dirt road to a small parking lot. I saw Richard's Pippit along the dirt road early in the morning. |
| Next to the parking lot is this small pond surrounded by
White Gums. There were Pacific Black Ducks and Welcome Swallows
on the pond. I found the nest hole of the Striated Pardalote in the sand bank down this path on the right just past the small bridge. Yellow Wattlebird, New Holland Honeyeater, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Laughing Kookaburra |
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A Pardalote is a small bird with a stubby tail. There are four species in Australia, three of which breed at Peter Murrell.
White gums are the preferred habitat of the Tasmanian endemic Forty-Spotted Pardalote. You can also see Spotted Pardalote and Striated Pardalote here. You can see these two elsewhere in Australia, but the Forty-spotted you have to get in Tasmania and this was the best location I found outside of Bruny Island.
The Spotted, Red-browed, and Striated Pardalotes build dome shaped nests inside narrow tunnels in steep or vertical sand banks. The first Pardalote I saw was the Striated at Lorikeet Park in north New South Wales. It was nesting in the vertical sand bank along the beach. Someone told me that Pardalotes are a problem to the construction industry because as soon as they dump a pile of sand at a construction site the Pardalotes start digging a nesting hole. I can't confirm this bird problem story.
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What makes Pardalotes a challenge is that they like to feed
in the upper canopy and the tops of mature White Gums are along way up. Here is
a shot of the parking lot with Willy parked under a White Gum. I am standing on
a small hill beyond the parking lot trying to get a view into the
canopy. The first day here, Ranger Andrew Kirkley told me the Forty-Spotted were nesting in this White Gum. He also told me the best time to see them is early in the morning . Camping is not allowed in the conservation area. I drove on south to Snug where there is a nice caravan park. |
| I came back here the early next morning and I found the
Forty-Spotted almost immediately. Two were chasing each other around the
parking lot and for a short time both clung to hanging branch. I even had one bird on the ground and was getting ready to photograph it when a dog chased it away. I chewed out the owner for walking her dog off leash. I eventually noticed a hole to the left of the White Gum in the picture. A pair of Forty-spotted were going in and out of the hole. I moved in closer for a photo and noticed this larger bird in the hole with agitated Forty-spotted hanging around. In this photo the Pardalote is hanging on the piece of hanging bark on the left. The larger usurper is perched in the hole. It may be a Striated Pardalote. |
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