North West Tasmania – Out and About – 16 December 2019 – 6 January 2020

As well as doing the bushwalking outlined in earlier posts, I also spent a bit of time doing some Nature photography. Most of this was based on or near my sister and brother in law’s place close to the coast near Ulverstone where I was enjoying their hospitality. But there were some visits to nearby places that provided some great opportunities. Some of these were in the company of my other sister and brother in law that were also visiting during the Christmas period.

Local Birds and Wildlife

Little Wattlebird

Yellow Wattlebird

Superb Fairy-wrens

New Holland Honeyeater

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Galahs

Sooty Oystercatcher

Pied Oystercatcher

Pacific Gull

Common Blackbird

European Goldfinch

White-bellied Sea Eagle

Wedge-tailed Eagles

Collared Sparrowhawk

The above photo shows a Collared Sparrowhawk and a Swamp Harrier

Swamp Harriers

I think the Swamp Harrier was responsible for the diminishing number of Pacific Black Duck chicks –

Hoary-headed Grebes

These two are watching carefully an approaching snake

Welcome Swallows

Tasmanian Native Hens

Brown Thornbill

White-faced Heron

Green Rosella

Grey Butcherbird

Lilico Conservation Area

We made an evening visit to a Little Penguin rookery. It was amazing and very worthwhile. We saw dozens or penguins. The chicks were waiting outside their nesting boxes waiting for their parents to return with food. Lots of adults penguins were walking up the beach.

Photographing here was challenging. There were guides on the site, and they had red torches. I used a head torch switched to red to illuminate the penguins. It was very faint light and I did not have a suitable lens or camera for this. Next time I get the opportunity to visit this place I will use a full frame camera with a 85 mm f1.8 lens – the same as I use in the Zoo nocturnal house. I converted the photos from red to black and white.

Narawntapu National Park

This is a great place to see birds and other wildlife and also for bushwalking.

Superb Fairy-wrens

Pademelons

Walk to Archers Knob

From Archers Knob we could see the beach and wetland. Also in the far distance we could see Mt Ossa –

Pied Oystercatcher

White-fronted Chat

The Tasmanian Arboretum

This was an excellent place to see trees. It also turned out be a good place to observe birds. But it also turned out to be the best place I have ever visited to see platypus in the wild.