Leaving Cradle Mountain somewhat reluctantly we again set off west, this time for Strahan, where we arrived around six pm.
Strahan is a tourist town where boat-trips can be taken to the Gordon River and the historic Macquarie Heads.

Saturday morning was a bit damp, with light-drizzle and so we went along the coast road to the ocean approximately 4-5kms from Strahan through the coastal heathland reserve. I spotted some small grass-parrots which I assumed (at the time) were Blue-winged and proceeded to digiscope them when I saw what I thought was a House Sparrow due to the poor-light. Imagine my surprise when I put my bins up and realised that I was looking at a Beautiful Firetail....one of my most 'sought-after' species! Unfortunately I failed to digiscope them but I'm still pondering over the identity of the parrots, could they have been Orange-bellied? (One certainly had an orange belly, if anyone can help me out I would appreciate it.)
On the ocean thousands of Short-tailed Shearwater gathered but apart from a few Australasian Gannets no other species were seen.
 

After leaving Strahan we passed through the terrible landscape that man has created around Queenstown with excessive mining and total tree-eradication from pollution. I don't recall seeing any bird species here.

From Queenstown we drove over the roof of Tasmania through Franklin/Gordon and Cradle Mountain National Parks and took several short-walks and although the scenery was spectacular we saw relatively few bird-species apart from a pair of immature Brown Goshawks calling loudly.

At Lake St Clair birding improved a little and we had our best views of Black Currawong and Crescent Honeyeater but we failed to see Flame Robin which was described on the parks bird-list as "Very Common". Unfortunately we failed to catch up with this species throughout the trip despite seeing many Scarlet Robins virtually every day.

Saturday ended at Mt Field National Park where we did some spot-lighting, here we saw Tasmanian Pademelon, Common Ringtail and Common Brushtail, the coloration of the latter two species was a surprise, some Brushtails being similar to ours in SE Qld although the majority were almost black. The ringtail was very different, grey/black and white against our coppery-coloured ones. The Pademelons were very abundant here and roadkills littered nearby roads.  Between Strahan and Mt Field we saw several Echidna and rescued a couple from a similar fate.

Mt Field was one of Australia's first National Parks and Russell Falls has been a very popular attraction since the last century.
We spent the night at the quaint National Park Hotel, a stone's throw from the entrance and very good value.
 

On Sunday we made our way to Hobart and on to Kettering to get to Bruny Island, fortunately just catching the last morning
ferry. Soon after arriving we passed a large eucalypt and saw a male Satin Flycatcher with young and a Dusky Robin.
Driving on to South Bruny we found some cabins at Captain Cook Memorial Caravan Park and checked in. This was an excellent birding site with a nearby swamp and we saw at least six Brush Bronzewings here in the morning, feeding with Green Rosella. Across the road Pacific Gulls wandered the beach after crabs, though I didn't see the Hooded Plover and Fairy Terns that were supposed to breed there too.
Checking the proposed flight to Melaleuca on Monday it transpired that the pilot was coming to Bruny to pick up another birder who was staying on the island and they agreed that we could board the flight at the airstrip too, although the weather forecast was anything but promising, a front with high-winds and gales expected.
Later in the afternoon whilst birding from Cloudy Bay we met the other birder, Peter from Tenterfield and made arrangements to meet him on the following morning at the airstrip. At Cloudy Bay the weather was very windy from the south-west and I managed to get some nice shots of a Sooty Oystercatcher.
Before dusk at we drove up to the 'Neck' (the Causeway between North and South Bruny Islands) and with several other cold, wet souls witnessed Fairy Penguins and hundreds of Short-tailed Shearwaters returning to their burrows.

The front arrived in the evening and we assumed that the flight would probably not go ahead, and rain lashed the cabin throughout the night. In the morning I realised that my mobile phone was out of range so I went to the telephone kiosk near the general store and rang the Par-Avion office at Cambridge Airport, I was amazed when Holly, the receptionist exclaimed that she had heard that the weather was fine in Melaleuca and the flight was to go ahead as planned!

We met Peter birding close to the airstrip and our light aircraft appeared over the horizon and picked us up. Matt the pilot gave us a ride to remember taking us over landscape with very few signs of human disturbance and spectacular scenery. Though I remember thinking that Holly's weather prognosis was a bit optimistic as we passed through large shower clouds and sleet. After about 40 minutes we touched down at the airstrip and walked about a hundred metres to the bird-hide.

Once inside I was amazed to see Beautiful Firetails on the feeder although ominously there were no signs of our objective, the Orange-bellied Parrot. As most of the other visitors took a side-trip on a boat we were left in the hide, with a box of biscuits and a coffee.....and fingers-crossed. An age went by with a couple of Green Rosellas, Tree Martins and Yellow-throated Honeyeater appearing at the feeder, but no OBP. When the boat-people returned I was sure that this was going to be a very expensive 'dip' and then as if out of nowhere, a male arrived in front of us.
Fortunately I managed to come out of my 'awe-struck' state and got a few digiscoped shots, although I missed the best one when he perched on a twig showing us all his splendour.....oh well, next time.

On our last morning in Tasmania, we had some spare time before the 10am ferry so we decided to try and obtain better views of Forty-spotted Pardalote at a well-known area on North Bruny near Dennes Point. We followed the instructions to drive to about 3.5 kms south of the point and look in the Manna Gums (Eucalyptus viminalis) which is the birds preferred habitat.
Fortunately the wind had dropped and we had excellent view of at least 3 calling birds. So ended an excellent weeks birding.

If anyone would like more detailed information regarding locations and birds mentioned in this report please contact us.