I almost hesitate to write this, as it seems a bit incongruous, but I'll
describe what I saw/heard and you can judge for yourselves.
I was riding thorugh the bottom of Hackett at 3:30 this afternoon on the
footpath that runs between Phillip Ave and Newton St when I heard a
different parrot call.
I immediately thought Swifts but all I could see was Rainbow Lorikeets.
But sure enough, there was the smaller one, short-tailed with golden
edging and appearing all green-I didn't have my binos and it was about
10 metres up.
Still I was pretty sure it was Musk Lorikeet based on its size and lack
of tail when compared to the swifts- and I know them from the coast.
Additionally, I listened to its call on the phone app and it sounded
like what I had initially heard. Oh well, not a swifty, but still a
pretty special bird for around here.
So, I was enjoying watching the 2 species of lorikeet feed on the
flowering yellow box, when darned if, at the back of the tree on a dead
branch out popped an even smaller lorikeet. I thought, wow, there can't
be a little lorikeet too...just then a noisy miner swoops in and
pursues the tiny lorikeet and it gives a "chrr-chrr" call as it does a
loop away from the tree while being pursued-definitely a little lorikeet.
So, there you have it-quite bizarre, but maybe the Musk and Little have
teamed up? No sign of any lorikeets when I went past the tree an hour
later although there were a fair few rainbows buzzing around Hackett in
general.
Peter Miller
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