South-East Australia Road Trip Spring 2019: Part 6 – Bruny Island

Forty-spotted Pardalote

During our last evening at Port Arthur I saw Eastern Barred Bandicoot but managed just poor images in the by now predictably dreary, damp and unexpectedly (for November) cold weather conditions. (My external flash had also died.) 

Eastern Barred Bandicoot

We then headed south to Bruny Island, the best-known hotspot in Tasmania for finding the state's endemic birds. It didn't disappoint. A short distance from the ferry landing, I checked out Missionary Road and quickly found several Forty-spotted Pardalotes within a few hundred metres of the main road. I'd heard that North Bruny was unusually dry and that the pardalotes had become more difficult to find. Dusky Robin was also here.

Dusky Robin

Forty-spotted Pardalote

We spent the first night behind the pub at Alonnah on South Bruny, the next morning checking out the Cape Bruny Lighthouse and Jetty Beach. A flock of Strong-billed Honeyeaters was foraging in eucalypts about 1km before the lighthouse. Several Flame Robins were around the lighthouse. 

Cape Bruny

Flame Robin

Strong-billed Honeyeater

Strong-billed Honeyeater

We moved to the caravan park at Adventure Bay on the eastern side of South Bruny for the next three nights. Plenty of Tasmanian Native-hens were seen earlier during the trip but I hadn't got around to photographing them until here.

Tasmanian Native-hen

Adventure Bay

Several Tasmanian Scrubwrens were in the caravan park grounds. Nest boxes for Swift Parrot in the grounds were used last year by the parrots but this year only European Starlings were occupying them.

Tasmanian Scrubwren

During several days on Bruny I heard just a couple of Swift Parrots at Adventure Bay, regarded as a stronghold for the critically endangered species: Bruny Island's significance for the bird is noted in a sign prominently positioned at the ferry landing. (As noted earlier, plenty of parrots were present at Port Arthur.)

A visit to the Mavista Nature Walk behind Adventure Bay turned up a few Scrubtits – the last of Tasmania's 12 endemic species that I wanted to photograph. While several endemics were seen earlier in the trip, all 12 were spotted easily on Bruny Island. 

Scrubtit

Scrubtit

We went looking for Eastern Quoll one night, beginning at the jetty landing an hour after sunset and slowly driving the roads east and south, detouring via Missionary Road. We saw a total of 8 quoll including two dark phase individuals but all were seen fleetingly crossing the road or leaving its verges, or distantly in paddocks. None offered a photographic opportunity. Quoll feeding on roadkill on Bruny had in the past been easily photographed but these days, road kill is removed by the island's commercial wildlife company, Inala. According to the company, this is to prevent raptors and quoll feeding on dead animals from being hit by cars. The only other vehicle we saw during our quoll foray was an Inala tour car; the company presumably knows where road kills are relocated. Inala charges $285 per person for a three-hour evening tour.

Morepork

A Morepork showed well roadside during our return to Adventure Bay. At a well-known breeding colony of Little Penguins at The Neck, which divides North Bruny from South Bruny, I saw a couple of penguins close to the carpark.

Little Penguin