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Budgerigars near Melbourne

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Subject: Budgerigars near Melbourne
From: "Dr Richard Nowotny" <>
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 22:49:36 +1100

On a visit to the grasslands west of the township of Werribee this morning (Tues 2 Nov, Melbourne Cup Day) Diana and I, with Martin Daniel, a visiting UK birder currently residing in Singapore, saw 4 Budgerigars, initially on a roadside fence, then feeding on the road edge, then perched in a nearby bush, and finally flying off high to the south.  The location was Bulban Rd, between Manor Rd and Balls Rd (Melway Map 407, just west of A2).

While (very pleasantly) surprised by a sighting so near to Melbourne, and so far south, I note that The New Atlas of Australian Birds (2003) shows records in the 1 degree block north-west of this area (although some distance away), and the much older Atlas of Victorian Birds (Emison et al, 1987) has a very isolated record from the same area as today’s sighting, and the following comment: “The number of birds coming into Victoria vary from year to year and are highest during and immediately after dry years,.….”.

Therefore, while today’s sighting was certainly remarkable it seems that it was not without precedent, nor entirely unexpected.

Richard Nowotny

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