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OBP's - Werribee T-section

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Subject: OBP's - Werribee T-section
From: "John Barkla" <>
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 10:32:53 +1000

On Saturday Simon Mustoe reported an Orange-bellied Parrot near the T-section Lagoons at the Western Treatment Plant.  Fred Smith and I were not aware of this on Sunday when we went looking for the 4 Blue-winged Parrots Fred had seen in this area the previous Saturday.  We managed to find 11 Blue-winged Parrots which were feeding with 2 Orange-bellied Parrots.  We tried for over an hour to determine whether one or both of the OBP’s was banded, as they feed on the ground on a plant I think is Goosefoot.  We both clearly saw a band on the left leg of one of the birds, which appeared to us to be a bright emerald green.  We could not see a band on the right leg.  I then thought I saw a band of the same colour on the left leg of the second bird, but I was not completely sure.  Both birds seemed to me to be first autumn-winter immatures (dusky grey on upper mandible, but frontal band greenish-blue and quite indistinct).  These 2 birds were feeding in the same place as 2 OBP early arrivals Fred saw last year.

 

Our other highlights for the day were: 200-300 Freckled Duck (I counted over 200 but there were many others on the adjacent lagoon which I could not see properly); a Flame Robin at the mouth of the Little River (Fred saw 6 there yesterday); Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints and White-winged Black Terns in full breeding plumage; 5 Common Terns (Michael Seyfort had seen over 20 earlier in the day) and 7 Fairy Terns; some unusual passerines for the WTP (presumably moving through) including 5 Mistletoebirds, 2 Crested Shriketits, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters (regular winter visitors) and Spotted and Striated Pardalotes; many Cape Barren Geese (now a regular feature); nesting Darters; and a dozen Black-tailed Native-hens crammed together under a one metre wide Boxthorn to escape the attentions of a quite interested Swamp Harrier.

 

In all we saw exactly 100 species on the WTP for the day.

 

John Barkla

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