Birds in Carparks

["Tim Murphy" <>]

It is probably the fact that birds that hand around carparks are used to people. My car park list includes:

 

My 1st Tropical Kingbird behind a fast food joint in Victoria B.C.

 

My 1st (and only) Hooded Parrot at Katherine Gorge car park - two flew over

 

Bridled Honeyeater in my car at The Crater (although that one hardly counts)

 

New Zealand Dotterel sheltering from the wind (in January!) in Invercargil at the edge of the car park - I was at the Aluminium smelter and wondered what the dots on the edge were.

 

Best Regards

 

Tim Murphy

 

PS. I know many stories of birders searching hard and coming back to a spouse left at the car park who had a Trogon or what not just above her.    

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: [On Behalf Of Greg Oakley
Sent: Wednesday, 2 October 2002 9:34 AM
To: Birding Aus
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Birds in Carparks

Susan wrote: One day I intend to produce a slim volume entitled "Birds of carparks".  I strongly suspect that if you wait in them long enough you will see everything.


Hi everyone,
Reminds me of two interesting occasions of seeing birds that I had been searching
hi and lo (without success) and then seeing them in a carpark ­

The first, after almost doing a Steve Irwin and crawling through dense, prickly heath
looking for Beautiful Firetail (down near Walkerville, Vic) for 3 hours. Of course
I had no success until, while actually opening the door of my car in the carpark,
a Beautiful Firetail landed on a branch literally 2 metres away. I'm sure I saw it smile!

The second was similar - this time trudging around in 38º heat around Edith Falls
in the NT looking for Hooded Parrot. Again, no parrots (or anything else for that matter),
for about 6 hours. Defeated, we decided to call it quits and head for the nearest pub.
Alighting from the car at the Pine Creek pub, I heard a parrot call from the small tree
above us - yep, a pair of Hooded Parrots, preening themselves only a few feet
from the car.

I'm sure everyone has a similar story,
Greg