birding-aus Musk Lorikeets in Melbourne

The Musk Lorikeets are here in Bayside (SE Melbourne) as well.  In some
years they disappear by the end of April or stay on in a limited number
of places but this year they are still widespread with, at a guess, a
couple of hundred birds present.

Their main food seems to be nectar from Eucalyptus leucoxylon and E. (or
should that be C.?) maculata, neither of them indigenous to this area.

We talk of them being early or late arriving in the area or departing
but that is just reckoning by our calendar.  But what we should be doing
is recording the timing and extent of the gum blossom and seeing how
that correlates with the presence of the lorikeets.  More work.

Michael Norris
Hampton, Vic.


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