Five Hundred

Morning ferry to Bruny Island

The clear consensus from the folks on the birding mail lists was that a trip to Bruny Island was the best chance of tracking down that final Tasmanian endemic. Bruny Island is a 20 minute hop across the water from Kettering which is a nice short drive south from Hobart. I had two full days to get the job done while Emily did her conference thing and so early on the first morning I headed for the ferry.

 Gum tree between the two lagoons on the Cape Queen Elizabeth Track

I had a good tip-off regarding a very specific spot on the Cape Queen Elizabeth Track and so I got myself down there to begin the hunt. Within minutes of finding the group of gum trees between the two lagoons I saw movement in the canopy and there it was. The Forty-spotted Pardalote #500 with it's lemon cheeks and forty spots showing well in the early morning sun.

 The rain arrives

There were a pair of them in the end and they flitted around me for quite a while before the wind suddenly got up and the rain came in and they were gone. Being tiny pardalotes that hop about in the canopy, pictures were not so easy with my little camera but being number 500 I have to share a couple of record shots!

Forty-spotted Pardalote

An early start paying off once again and Tasmania is now complete. From a birding point of view anyway!