We returned to the Peninsula this October. The bird life was immense. Aside from several sea eagle sightings ; pride of place went to a Masked Owl we saw in the eucalypts outside the kitchen window one night.
The hour of dawn is when the avian orchestra is loudest. Occupying the front ranks around the verandahs and garden tanks are the little chirpers ; pardalotes, wrens , honey eaters and swallows. Next are the paddock patrollers ; plovers, wattle birds and ravens . Then beyond in the tree line are all manner of denizens including parrots , cockatoos , owls and kookaburras. This sound is the backdrop to the amazing view as the pink and crimson colours of the clouds herald the coming of the sun over the Dentrecasteaux Channel and its islands.
On one walk to Seal Rocks we were accompanied by the melodious notes of a shrike-thrush immediately followed by the equally beautiful call of an olive whistler who actually flew among us. One of our number , who knows about such things , remarked that they were often in close proximity , much like a viola and a cello in an orchestra, or a soprano and an alto in a choir.
The animal sighting highlight occurred one night returning from a very acceptable pub meal at the RSL club. Only some 50 metres inside the red gate, in the far reach of our headlights , was a wombat crossing the road . He moved with a studied indifference to our vehicle; clearly he had read the sign “animals have right of way.”
