A DISAPPOINTING START TO SPRING

Pelagics are often cancelled. It seems to me that I've driven to Wollongong on many occasions only to be greeted with a cancelled pelagic. The Portland/Port Fairy pelagics were notorious for being cancelled as often as they went out, especially in winter. But I don't remember an Eaglehawk Neck pelagic being cancelled before. Yet that's what happened this September. What's more, I was told that, of the 19 pelagics scheduled for this year, nine have been cancelled. Of course I'd had a little list of birds I expected to see, and another, much longer list of birds that I would love to see. I was going with my birding mate, Ken Haines and we had not considered the possibility of having our trip cancelled. We had purchased flights, a car hire, parking at the airport and we'd booked accommodation. We decided to go anyway. We knew the weather would be cold and windy. Ironically, I'd been watching the forecasts and thinking that the wind would blow in some good birds for us. I had not thought the wind would cancel our boat trip. So, without any specific plans, we landed at Hobart and picked up our hire car for a weekend of Tasmanian birding, constrained only by the fact that our accommodation was in Eaglehawk Neck. Ken wanted to photograph a Strong-billed Honeyeater, a Tasmanian endemic that had eluded his camera on previous occasions. I wanted to pick up as many endemics as possible for my year list. We would be nowhere near Forty-spotted Pardalotes and I decided that Scrubtits would be very unlikely, but I had hopes for the other ten. Add a Forest Raven and I could go home with eleven new birds for 2024. Or we could have a cold, wet and windy weekend and see nothing. We drove down to Eaglehawk Neck without incident, seeing plenty of Forest Ravens and Tasmanian Nativehens, and admiring the Black-faced Cormorants at Dunally. We made a half-hearted attempt at seawatching at The Blowhole, but all we saw were Kelp Gulls and one Australasian Gannet.

At the end of Saturday, I'd managed to see five more endemics - the five easiest! - Green Rosella, Black Currawong, Yellow Wattlebird, Tasmanian Thornbill and Tasmanian Scrubwren. Ken had good photos of the Tasmanian race of Grey Currawongs (arguta) and one cooperative Yellow Wattlebird at the hotel. I also managed to add a Fan-tailed Cuckoo to my year list. So the day wasn't totally wasted. It had been very windy and in fact we were lucky to have seen anything at all.

We attempted to be optimistic on Sunday, but it was difficult. Again, it was windy, and we were both pleased in the end that we were not out at sea. A Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle was too quick for Ken's camera. Photographers are like fishermen: they always lament the one that got away instead of celebrating what they achieved. But I guess birders are too! We tried in vain to summon up a Strong-billed Honeyeater. We did manage one Yellow-throated, to add to our Tasmanian tally. And that was it. I went home with a total of nine birds to add to my year list. I did my best to hide my disappointment. Our plane was late. It was a Virgin flight and they'd just about run out of food. A fitting end to our weekend, I thought, as I arrived home very late, still doing my best not to be grumpy. Ken had a worse drive home from dropping me off, with closed roads and blackouts with no traffic lights. I live in hope: I put my name down to do it again next year. And we are both hoping that our proposed October pelagics out of Kiama will prove a little more productive. Fingers crossed that they are not cancelled.