Red Wattlebirds on the move

[Michael Lenz <>]

Yesterday morning (9. April) groups of Red Wattlebirds [RWs] (total about 120) were passing across the Lyneham Ridge. They came along a fairly narrow corridor from the direction of Mt Majura (NE), heading SW. I suspected they had started from the assumed roost site to the East of Mt Majura.

In the afternoon I checked at Mt Majura whether there was any reverse movement to make sure the morning observation represented proper movement. Less than 10 RWs were seen flying in the direction of the assumed roost. So the morning observation represented proper movement of RWs out of this area. Further, Lyneham Ridge at this time of year has 20+ RWs staying and feeding within the site. There was only a single RW noted on Thursday morning, also numbers of RWs have dropped at my GBS site in North Lyneham.

Among the RWs migrating were a few Noisy Friarbirds (NFs) as well. In the afternoon at Mr Majura 3 NFs did the expected thing and passede my observation point heading East to the suspected roost area. But just before sunset another 5 birds had arrived, one could almost see that they were weighing up of flying further or not (sitting for quite a while on the top of small trees facing East). In the end they decided to just get a bit deeper into the vegetation and most likely spend the night without flying any further).

The roost flight count for  Crimson Rosellas was 121 birds (well down from the February max. of 225!), and 96 birds for the Australian King Parrot (up from 49 in February).

Michael Lenz