I was on the look out for those Tasmanian endemics during our April holiday. On this occasion a lifer flew right on to the outside tables of a cafe and said "Here I am, tick me off!"
Black currawong, Tahune airwalk,Tasmania, April 2014
The Tahune Airwalk is one of those elevated canopy walks. I walked another once in Western Australia. On both occasions I was enamoured with the possibility of some close-up shots of those little feathered creatures that always seem so distant in the upper most branches. Not to be!
I did however come across my first Bassian Thrush sighting for the year. Always a good bird for the year list!
Bassian thrush, Tahune Airwalk, Huon valley, Tasmania
I had caught a definite glimpse of a male Pink robin but only a female posed for photographs.
Pink robin, Tahune Airwalk, April 2014
This Crescent honeyeater had it's banksia feast interrupted
The explorer and navigator George Bass (1771-1803) lived for only 32 years but is well-remembered across Southern Victoria (and indeed northern Tasmania) through the naming of geographical features and modern infrastructure. It is my impression (from reading the book Australian Bird Names by Fraser & Gray) that the Bassian Thrush is named in honour of the man only indirectly in that the bird's range falls in a biogeographical region that attracts the "Bass-ian" name. When translated literally the scientific name for Bassian Thrushtranslates as "crescent animal-hunter". Lunulata is clearly a reference to those wonderful "dark half-moons" (Pizzy). I actually reckon the incantation Zoothera lunulata could do some damage at Hogwarts!
For me Bassian Thrush are an "occasional" bird. I have only identified them on four occasions and I can clearly remember each encounter. This year I have seen two - one in the Huon region of Tasmania and now this one in the Dandenongs. I came across this fellow while exploring the forest between the Silvan Reservoir and Olinda the other day. When the low and feeble winter sun actually shines in Victoria the whole forest seems to breathe more happily!
I had wanted to explore the trails around the Eagle Nest Picnic Ground for some time but was always thwarted by closure of the vehicular tracks. Bizarrely the access track was again closed to cars the sign reading "Total Fire Ban". Anyway a check of the map suggested it was worthwhile parking the car at the blockade and walking 1-2km into the forest.
Eagle's Nest picnic area - perhaps with fresh landscaping. Maybe "current" works being the possible cause of road closures .... it's just easier without the public hooning around.
I placed a coffee on the picnic table at the left of shot, turned around and behind me was this Bassian Thrush! Well we poked around for 20 minutes or so. It showed me how well it could camouflage itself ....
.... and showed off its bold scalloped stripes.
I can't even see it now, but it is my recollection that I took this iPhone shot with the bird in there somewhere!
The Canon EOS has a video setting but I'm not really set up for video (& there's a bit of a familial tremor sneaking in as the years go by)! On this occasion some of the frames are sharp so I was inclined to share it. The birds calling in the background are Sulphur-crested cockatoos....
It seems that winter will see the Ruddy Turnstones drop out of the Eremaea top 50! Short days that are dull, wet & windy are not proving inviting for pulling out the bins & the EOS! Early morning birding walks are met with poor light, fog and drizzle. Several return visits to the reported haunt of the Blackie Lake Powerful Owl have been miserable & unrewarded. In fact I think there is a permanent rain cloud over that site.
In what seems like countless weeks the only bird added to the 2011 list is the suitably miserable Bassian Thrush .... and here's a suitably miserable photo taken in the gloom of an Otways gully:
And now the Bombers have gone to pot....even Melbourne beat them.
