Wildlife on Bruny Island and St Clairs

Bruny Island Wildlife is both varied and interesting. You may see the rare Forty Spotted Pardelote -  (View Picture)  which is found in several areas of White Gum - one of which is close to St Clairs.
We are visited daily by native hens and several wallabies who cross the lawn at dusk (sometimes including one of the Bruny White Wallabies). You will probably see and hear the local Kookaburras who often roost in our trees.  The dam is frequented by a pair of herons and of course wild ducks together with an often vociferous frog population.  Several times every week we see a pair of white-breasted sea eagles and occasionally a wedge-tailed eagle. Often dolphins and sometimes pilot whales may be seen off the jetty.  On one occasion a huge southern right whale came within 20 metres of the jetty.
Brush-tailed possums are common and often come to the garden to eat the flowers - we try to discourage that but they are cute and have personalities which are sometimes hard to resist - this picture is 'Basil' whom we have hand fed in the past.  The rarer, indigenous ring-tailed possum, is much smaller and, we have found, quite tame but it would appear to be being displaced by their introduced, larger cousins.
Australian fur seals are quite common in the waters surrounding Bruny Island and are seen in large numbers on 'The Friars' a small group of rocky islands off the southern coast of Bruny.  This area is a 'haul out' and mostly consists of males although there are several females and pups in abundance in 'the season'.  These pictures were taken from 'The Albatross' - the eco-tourism boat operated by Bruny Charters which runs trips to the Friars daily between October and April and which often encounters, dolphins, whales, albatross, eagles, gannets and mutton birds.