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At 4:00 pm today I was standing on the gravel path behind the old National
Museum of Australia building at Yarramundi. I was about 50m from the building
and facing the lake, when a pair of bright green budgerigars rose from the
ground 20m away and landed on the outer foliage of a eucalypt tree about 30m
away. A couple of pair of Red-rumped Parrots rose as well but I didn't need them
for comparison as the budgies were in full view (through the binos) and were
brilliantly illuminated by a burst of late afternoon sunlight.
Twenty seconds later, they returned to the ground near where they had taken
off from. They began feeding and moved about fairly rapidly in very short,
sparse, dry grass. At times they moved on to a narrow bare patch and
were well illuminated. So, again I had excellent views. They were to the left of
the gravel path, close to where it's joined by an old vehicle track. A bit
further toward the lake is a small sign (50cm tall) that tells about local
Aborigine tribes.
Sixty seconds later they flushed again - probably disturbed by the noise of
a car travelling along the bike path (!) - and flew to a eucalypt some 30m away.
I got to within 15m before they flushed and headed south across open grassland
and I quickly lost sight of them.
Going by the plumage, I thought there was a chance they were wild birds,
although I realise some aviary budgies have natural-looking plumage. Then again,
the plumage did appear to be a very bright green but, as mentioned above, they
were in very strong, late afternoon sunlight.
Other highlights at Yarramundi were about 30 Dusky Woodswallows, a pair of
Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos on the wing, about 10 Yellow-faced Honeyeaters
hanging about and one that could have been a Fuscous Honeyeater.
Bye.
John Layton.
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