ON THE WING
The Bruny Island Bird Festival is on this weekend, showcasing what the organisation says is the “birdwatching capital of Tasmania”. This sounds like an exaggeration but the four festivals since the event’s inception in 2010 have drawn huge numbers of interstate and overseas birdwatchers.
In the past two years Bruny’s birding “hotspot” status has been enhanced by the twin islands being named by BirdLife Australia one of Australia’s most important bird and biodiversity areas. All Tasmania’s 12 endemic species can be seen on Bruny, including one of the world’s rarest birds, the forty-spotted pardalote. The critically endangered swift parrot breeds in Bruny’s blue gum forests before migrating to the mainland at the end of summer.
The festival mixes workshops, bird and literary talks and outings with social events, which this year include a bird quiz and a speech by environmentalist Bob Brown, who will deliver the Louise Crossley memorial lecture, in memory of a stalwart of the Bruny Island Environmental Network, who died three years ago.
There is growing awareness of Tasmania’s birds and their uniqueness on an international scale. More and more foreign wildlife tourists visit the state. There are few states in Australia with so many exclusive bird species. The list of significant birds here is only surpassed by the much larger states of Queensland and Western Australia. NSW has one endemic species and Victoria none.
The Bruny Bird Festival is not only serving to showcase the island’s birds but to celebrate the achievements of the local residents in protecting birds and the environments they live in.
BIEN had been instrumental in a program to construct and install nest boxes for swift parrots and forty-spotted pardalotes. The sponsored nest boxes, built by members of the Bruny Men’s Shed, can be seen in the blue and white gums across the islands and are a potent reminder that the people of Bruny mean business. The organisation had input into BirdLife Tasmania’s research and recommendations for mitigation measures to protect penguins when the road linking the north and south islands was sealed recently — tunnels were provided for penguins to cross safely — and members are working with the wider community and Kingborough Council to rid the twin islands of feral cats. BIEN hopes the festival will spur more visitors from the US and Europe.
A leading Australian bird tour operator on the island, Tonia Cochran, says birdwatching is huge in the US and the UK with as many as one in four people in the US taking an interest in wild birds. BIEN aims to remain focused on conservation, science, creativity and community rather than just economic benefit.