Another day, another ferry ride... this time to Bruny Island, bird heaven! The crossing to Bruny is dead easy - basically a car barge takes you across, and runs both ways regularly all day until evening. This was our first visit, and we were very keen to explore. We drove from the North Bruny, where the ferry docks, down through farming land, along the Neck (the sliver of land connecting north and south islands), and on to our bungalow stay for our first two Bruny days. We checked out the Bruny Island Beer and Cheese shop en route, as did everyone else on the island, it seemed. It was impressive - and we stocked up on some gourmet produce. But we were primarily here for the birds, and birds we got! In the bush block adjoining our accommodation, we saw a pallid cuckoo, green rosellas, golden whistlers, honeyeaters, fairywrens, a black-faced cuckoo shrike, and the list goes on. And we really hadn't been anywhere special yet - well, the whole of Bruny is special, as we were about to discover. The next day, we made our way to the Cape Queen Elizabeth Track, a 12km walk starting near the airfield (though we only did the first section to the big lagoon and back). This is an easy walk with a very small parking area out front. The reason we didn't walk very far was that we saw many birds in the first hundred metres - it was slow going for a good reason. The eucalyptus woodland changed as we went towards the beach, and the track became more sandy. Very soon we were near the Big Lagoon, and it was bleak - very little birdlife, except for numerous tree martins and not much sunshine. Still, it was beautiful. Plenty of tracks around and one wallaby kept a wary eye on us. We decided to head back to the eucalypt woodland, and enjoy more of those bush birds - and this is when we saw two blue-winged parrots - a lifer for us, and such a thrill! The light was not great, hence the dull pic, but a lifer just the same! We thought this was a very enjoyable walk, and the bird activity was terrific. We leave you with another blue winged creature from along the track!
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