A splashing and dunking, a spray of water droplets sparkling golden in the late-afternoon sun. A passing parade of birds were taking a dip.
In terms of a birding hotspot this bathing pool did not look much. The birds knew otherwise. A fallen wattle was spread across the shallow waters of the Sandy Bay Rivulet where the watercourse weaves its way through the foothills of kunanyi/Mt Wellington. The silver wattle’s twiggy, clustered upper branches trapped a pool of water and provided protection from marauding goshawks which often target bathing spots.
As I reached the spot on an Easter weekend hike, grey fantails hovered about me, one male resplendent in slate-grey plumage freshly spruced up by a cool swim and I could see others peeling off to dive beneath the horizontal wattle canopy.
And that was just the start. I had discovered treasure on Good Friday, a successful birding Easter egg hunt.
In all about 20 species arrived including one that’s often difficult to find, the strong-billed honeyeater. There was also a pink robin – another elusive species – together with the more common scarlet robin.
The beauty of a bathing spot is that it allows the close study of birds. They come to the ground and linger momentarily. Necks do not have to be strained to follow them through binoculars in the high canopy, or flitting across the treetops.
An endemic Tasmanian thornbill came so close I could separate it from the closely related and near-identical brown thornbill – observing nuances in colour and behaviour to give what lazy birders call the “little brown birds” a name.
Washing and preening presents possibly the most dangerous time for birds. Although the breeding season is another perilous period, birds survive by concealment and limiting their movements. They dash in and out of nests in the blink of a predator’s eye.
It’s more difficult at the bathing hole. The mere act of splashing attracts attention by sight and sound so birds have to be careful, selecting locations that offer cover. Brown goshawks and collared sparrowhawks hunt by ambush and they prefer targets to be in clear sight, free of obstacles that might cause injury to their fragile wings.
Birds clearly enjoy their bathing rituals, as anyone who has watched them at a garden birdbath will know. Birds also need water to clean and maintain their feathers because, while feathers are replaced, they do not grow fast enough to allow their care to be neglected. Good feathers are necessary for flight, insulation and waterproofing.
The pool along the rivulet was a perfect location for the myriad bird species that were coming to visit on this autumnal late afternoon. Not a goshawk in sight. It appeared the birds of prey had read the message – the pool a no-go area, even for a raptor wanting a splash and dunk of its own.