Platypus at Warrawee Forest Reserve

Warrawee Forest Reserve is located at Latrobe, Tasmania. There you can go camping, walking, picnicking, kayaking, spot flora and fauna and enjoy the mountain bike trails.

We followed the bush walking track alongside the river that starts at the right hand side of the car park and walked down to the bridge and back.

The walking path was quite overgrown but manageable.

Some of the gum trees were incredibly tall!

We could hear lots of different birds around us and sometimes caught a glimpse of a bird on a tree branch before it flew off. We spotted blue wrens, fantails, a pink robin, and some pacific black ducks swimming in the river.

At one point we saw two white faced herons fly over the river side by side making a racket, and then shortly after we came upon them on the opposite side of the river, in the progress of what appeared to be a courtship ritual. It was fascinating to watch for several minutes until they went their separate ways.

And I managed to get a quick photo of a bird I had never seen before, a spotted pardelote!

And finally, we were pleasantly surprised to be able to catch glimpses of two platypus in the river! Here is a compilation of some footage. When you get to 0.18 in the video, watch closely around the top right and you will see the platypus foraging in the water, he can be difficult to see.