While travelling to Mudgee on the morning of 22 December we
stopped in Flynn on the way out of Canberra. I was standing in Huelin Circuit at
about 09:30 when a flight of seven long-tailed parrots with pink chins and
light green-grey chest and underside flew right over the top of me at about
telegraph pole height, calling as they flew. They definitely weren’t a
species I’ve seen or heard before, and the Alexandra’s Parrot is
the only one who’s colouration matches what I saw. Have there been any
other reports locally of cage escapees of this species?
As for our five days in Mudgee, the only birds out of the
ordinary were a number of large flocks of musk lorikeets. In about 20 years of going
there two or three times a year, this is the first time I have seen musk
lorikeets there. I was thinking that perhaps the above average rainfall they
have had there for the past five or six months – between 70mm and 110mm
every month – has meant the lorikeets are venturing further West than
normal.
Nick Payne
