Melaleuca Species List

Mount Rugby viewed across Melaleuca Lagoon

I was able to stay at Melaleuca in the remote SW of Tasmania for nearly an entire month.  We were volunteering for the Parks and Wildlife Service as well as spending a week hiking out to the SW Cape.  What a magic month!  We had a bit of everything for weather (it was March, still summer) and the wildlife was the real highlight.  Here follows our species list for the time we were there and hiking the south coast.

Species List for Melaleuca and the South Coast (March 2016):

Antechinus sp.

Yellow-throated Honeyeater

Orange-bellied Parrot

Crescent Honeyeater

Welcome Swallow

Tiger Snake

Black Currawong

Grey Shrike-thrush

Striated Feildwren

Ground Parrot

Green Rosella

Forest Raven

New Holland Honeyeater

Red-capped Plover

Hooded Plover

Silver Gull

Pacific Gull

Masked Lapwing

Southern Boobook

Grey Fantail

Tasmanian Thornbill

Sooty Oystercatcher

Pied Oystercatcher

Tasmanian Scrubwren

Silvereye

Superb Fairy-wren

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Metallic Skink

Great Cormorant

Black-faced Cormorant

Bottlenose Dolphins

Pademelon

Spotted-tailed Quoll

White-throated Needletail

Southern Emu-wren

Ring-tailed Possum

Australasian Bittern

Swamp Rat (a marsupial!)

Pacific Black Duck

Scrubtit

Brush Bronzewing

Cape Bruny Lighthouse

An unexpected, lovely week spent caretaking the lighthouse at Cape Bruny, at the south end of Bruny Island was a chance to slow down.  We watched Wedge-tailed Eagles soaring overhead looking for prey while the New Holland Honeyeaters would constantly flit from the coastal scrub and provide a chorus to our sojourn.

New Holland Honeyeater on top of a Banksia shrub by Heidi Krajewsky

Afternoon light on the Cape Bruny Lighthouse by Heidi Krajewsky

Cape Bruny Species List June 2015

Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Sea-Eagle
Scarlet Robin
Flame Robin
Black Currawong
Forest Raven
New Holland Honeyeater
Tawny-crowned Honeyeater
Common Blackbird
Common Starling
Superb Fairy-wren
Pacific Gull
Kelp Gull
Eastern Spinebill
Dusky Robin
Hooded Plover
Sooty Oystercatcher
European Goldfinch
Shy Albatross
Black-faced Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Olive Whistler
Brown Thronbill
Anetchinus (sp?)
Bennet's Wallaby
Pademelon
Tiger Snake (one young found hiding in an old milking shed)

Scarlet Robin

Scarlet Robin ready to chase off other males. By Heidi Krajewsky

I just spent four weeks caretaking the old Quarantine Station on Bruny Island.  I lived in a beautiful wooden house built in 1884, sat on the wide veranda and watched Eastern Quolls scamper around in the evening and the robins perch on every fence post during the day.  The males would often chase each other from one fence post to another, then perch on our car.  The car was covered in guano by the time we left the sleepy place.  I didn't complain having to wash it though, the birding was too good while on Bruny!

My Species List for Bruny Island for April 2015

Birds

Black Swan

Pacific Black Duck

Australian Wood Duck

Chestnut Teal

Hoary-headed Grebe

Little Penguin

Kelp Gull

Pacific Gull

Silver Gull

Black-faced Cormorant

Great Cormorant Pied Oystercatcher Sooty Oystercatcher Hooded Plover

White-faced Heron

Masked Lapwing

Swamp Harrier

White-bellied Sea-Eagle

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Australian Magpie

Grey Butcherbird

Grey Currawong

Laughing Kookaburra

Forest Raven

Brush Bronzewing

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo

Green Rosella

Superb Fairy-wren

Dusky Robin

Scarlet Robin Pink Robin

Grey Fantail

Black-headed Honeyeater

Crescent Honeyeater

New Holland Honeyeater

Yellow Wattlebird

Yellow-throated Honeyeater

Eastern Spinebill

Spotted Pardalote

Forty-spotted Pardalote

Striated Pardalote

Dusky Woodswallow

Tree Martin

Welcome Swallow

Brown Thornbill

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Grey Shrike-thrush

Olive Whistler

Golden Whistler

Beautiful Firetail

Common Blackbird

European Goldfinch

Mammals

New Zealand Fur Seal

Tasmanian Pademelon

Bennet's Wallaby

Eastern Quoll

Common Brushtail Possum