Our next outing is to Harridge Falls on the 12th April. Leaders Craig and Debbie Searle. 

Please note: meeting time for this outing is 11 am.

Meet at the Weldborough Pub and be prepared to carpool. We will take a couple of cars back up Weld Hill to the start of the track to the falls; there is limited parking there on the side of the highway. In distance, this is a reasonably short walk, less than 2km, following a 4WD track down to the Weld River, then along beside the river to Harridge Falls. We will stop to i.d. ferns, so bring fern flips, then after lunch at the falls, a steep[ish] walk up through lovely wet sclerophyll and dogwoods back to the Tasman Highway.

We could relax with a drink at the pub after the outing.

Tamar Island Outing.

A big thankyou to Geoff Shannon for leading last month’s outing to Tamar Island. A total of 32 species was seen and for a couple of our keen birders, that list included a couple of birds not seen before. You can read the report on the website now.

It was exciting to hear a talk at a Landcare Networking Day last weekend by Caroline Elsner, an Environmental Scientist with the Launceston City Council, mentioning  that the Royal Spoonbills, who are part time residents of Tamar Island Wetlands and Queechy Lake are now making their nests and raising their young at Queechy Lake.  Part of her job has been to oversee the removal of willows in the catchment, whilst at the same time, retaining good habitat for the birds. She said Queechy Lake is more important for bird life than many people realise.

Ragwort Sighting.

After our visit to Little Waterhouse Lake, Jay reported our sighting of ragwort on the south western end of the lake to the Parks Ranger. It was useful at that stage to be able to present some photos with the report. It might not seem important at the time, after all, who wants photos of weeds – they’re everywhere, but it could save a heap of time and energy having that sort of evidence. Good teamwork Ross and Jay.

No New Coal Mine for Fingal.

A coal mine that was proposed by a Queensland businessman for a site on Valley Road near Fingal is no longer going ahead, after the company failed to pay a year’s rent. A Mineral Resources Tasmania spokesperson said Paladin Hydrogen could appeal the decision but did not intend to do so.

Rubbish Dumping

In a Break O’ Day Council Newsletter, it was reported that a man from Scamander was issued with a $1,100 infringement notice for illegally dumping rubbish in the bush. Under certain circumstances maximum fines of up to $10,000 can be imposed. We can report incidents when we see them to our local councils or the EPA  https://rubbish.epa.tas.gov.au/

Book Recommendation…..and a cautionary tale.

Mike Douglas recommended a book he had just finished and I ordered it from the library. After a while, it arrived and I settled in to enjoy it.

Mike was right – it was an interesting book – ‘Enchantment by Birds’ was the title, subtitled ‘a history of bird watching in 22 species’. Author Russell McGregor, adult non fiction. Published 2024.  This book was going to give me a “fresh appreciation of birds; it was going to take me into birdwatching’s past and introduce me to an intriguing cast of characters both avian and human; it was going to explain why birds have a special place in our hearts.” I could tell by the introduction that this book had been really well researched and that I would be lucky if I managed to remember half the information presented in it.

The day weather was idyllic – warm and sunny with no breeze. I had a lovely spot in the garden and in no time at all, I had raced through the introduction and was reading about the galah at the same time as they screeched and wheeled overhead. It felt like this was ‘virtual reality’, but jolting me out of this amazing experience was the alarm I had set to go to lunch with friends. I might have enough time for another chapter later, so I left the book on the chair. Now, it hadn’t rained for weeks……………….!!  I think you can guess the rest of the story. Yes, that was the day we received 5mls of rain in 5minutes, and when I got home the book was saturated.

If you care to read this book, I now own this very crinkled copy, lovingly dried out over two weeks in the sun, bought from the library and doing the rounds of my bird loving friends.

Next outing : May 10 – Patersonia Rivulet – Leaders Debbie Pallister and Ian Cameron.