More Majura Swifties

[Harvey Perkins <>]

At 12:15 PM +1100 14/3/05, Steve Holliday wrote:

> Headed out
> early this am to check Nicki's Swift Parrot site, no luck. Then had a
> look around the reservoir off Rivett St Hackett (where the Little
> Lorikeets were not long ago). There were at least 6 Swifties within
> stone throwing distance of the reservoir, very active and vocal at
> first, but they eventually settled in a large Yellow Box and went very
> quiet. At least 3 were sitting preening, one was foraging, apparently
> gleaning lerps from leaves. Due to the size and dense foliage of the
> tree I couldn't get an accurate count but at least 6 flew
> in. There were plenty of Noisy Miners in the area, but they
> appeared to ignore the parrots, in fact a miner sat quietly(!) for 5
> minutes about a metre from a preening Swiftie without trying
> to beat it up.

Between 7:00 h and 7:45 h this morning there were 14 Swift Parrots feeding and carrying on in the trees just near the reservoir. We (Alastair Smith and I) heard them almost as soon as we left Helm Place, and on making our way past the reservoir to the trees they were calling from, encountered John Goldie and Kathy Walter already watching them.

They were not overly disturbed by the Noisy Miners that were very active and vocal. Psittaciformally, there were also Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Gang-gang Cockatoos, Australian King-Parrots, Crimson and Eastern Rosellas present.

It looked like at least a few of the Swift Parrots might have been young ones.

Harvey