Musselroe Bay with Annette

Yesterday we went to Musselroe Bay with an overseas visitor hoping to spot, amongst other animals, a living moving Wombat. 

No such luck, wrong time of the year, but to our delight we spotted a Brown Falcon not too far away and a majestic fly-over by a Wedgetailed Eagle.
 

And I cannot help myself, but  I have included my favorite photo of the year: Wasp on a Gumtree flower. (OK, it's not a bird, but it has wings!)
 

and a Grey Butcherbird!! Wow, such a  great musical genius, keeps us enthralled all day long with his beautiful song. 

Kind regards,
Annette Amse.

Banded Stilts (thousands) on Logan Lagoon

Approximately 2000 Banded Stilts were observed in the north- eastern bay of Logan Lagoon, Flinders Island (55G 0610615 E 5553839 S) on 24th_25th February 2012. 

They were observed roosting in a straight line approximately 10 birds deep, 100 metres offshore in shallow water. When feeding they moved as one group in an ever changing line.

The flock was a mixture of adults in breeding and non-breeding plumage with some juveniles. No other wader species were seen in the flock. In 2003, between 1000-3000 Banded stilts were also observed in this area, travelling between Cameron Inlet, Logan Lagoon and Adelaide Bay from approximately mid- January through till March-April. 

All other Tasmanian sightings of Banded Stilts have been in numbers less than 10.


Observers: Liz Znidersic and Dr Sue Robinson (DPIPWE).

 Pictures (C) Liz Znidersic

Whitethroated Needletails gathering

On sunset Thursday 23rd Feb I was a amazed to see lots and lots of fast moving birds high in the sky. There must have been more than fifty at any one moment, but because they were travelling so fast in different directions it was difficult to count.
A call to Liz identified them as probably being Whitethroated Needletails, similar to Swallows in shape but bigger and without the telltale forked tail, preparing to migrate to their winter breeding sky somewhere in northern Asia.
 http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=682

Composite photograph by John H

More sightings from Pam

"I have on two occasions this month watched large flocks of needletailed swifts milling around in the sky above Scamander, so high they looked like a swarm of mosquitoes at times. They would suddenly disperse, then equally suddenly reappear, gathering from every direction and even swooping low over the beach and the river. The low sun lit up their white throats."