Tasmania - Arthur River 1

Sunday 2 March
Up at 5am and, after a quick breakfast, we headed for our sites to start our surveys on the four northern sites with Lily. Our team emptied 15 traps at each of four sites. We found 1 Tassie devil, 1 bandicoot, and 1 brushtail possum (that got away before measurements were taken) in the traps. The animals were weighed, tissue samples and blood taken and other particulars recorded. It was quite something to see how calm the Tassie devil actually is when being handled. I photographed a beautiful orchid, Dipodium roseum.

We returned to the house for lunch then busied ourselves during the afternoon with a choice of activities. I chose to update diary, ID various plants I'd collected then watched one of the video cards from the night cameras that others had gone out to collect.

Chris gave a talk about his research area on the effects of losing the top predators in a community (e.g. Tasmanian Devils). Dinner was delightful again with chocolate coated strawberries for dessert. We'll all end up with bad dreams tonight.

Some people went out counting via spotlighting tonight but I decided to stay in and catch up on a much needed early night.

Monday 3 March
Up early again after no bad dreams and this time was teamed up with Jimsy and Chris to do bird counts and habitat surveys at the four southern sites.

At the coastal heathland sites the vegetation through which we had to bushbash was about waist high and very dense. It was really quite awkward, especially as it was early and cool and the dew made our shoes and pants quite wet. At least it meant that snakes were not very active. No sightings so far but I'm sure that will change as this is peak snake season.

Black Rat

Spotted Quoll in carnivore trap

After we had finished the site surveys we were rostered to do Forest Raven count while driving along a 10km section of the road – Arthur River to West Point turn off. Although we'd seen quite a few during our bird surveys there were not many visible from the road at midday.

Back home for lunch and to try to identify the key plants of the day. At least the plants here are not quite as strange to me as the ones in the Kimberley and there are a few plant books this time.

Ian then decided to take some of us south to Rebecca Lagoon. There we had some photography tips that were very helpful, especially for those with more sophisticated cameras than mine. The lagoon was a fantastic swale lagoon and a haven for black swans and other water birds. By climbing the well vegetated dunes we had great views of both the lagoon and the Southern Ocean.

Back for a talk by Gini about her PhD on tracking devils, quolls and feral cats then a delicious roast dinner.

Tonight it was my turn to go spotlighting. As well as lots of pademelons and a few Bennets wallabies we saw a rabbit and a large black wombat. When we arrived home there was a bit of time for a chat then late to bed by 11pm.