On a
visit to the grasslands west of the township of Werribee this morning (Tues 2
Nov, Melbourne Cup Day) Diana and I, with Martin Daniel, a visiting UK birder
currently residing in Singapore, saw 4 Budgerigars, initially on a roadside
fence, then feeding on the road edge, then perched in a nearby bush, and
finally flying off high to the south. The location was Bulban Rd, between Manor Rd and Balls Rd (Melway Map 407, just west of
A2).
While
(very pleasantly) surprised by a sighting so near to Melbourne, and so far
south, I note that The New Atlas of Australian Birds (2003) shows records in
the 1 degree block north-west of this area (although some distance away), and
the much older Atlas of Victorian Birds (Emison et al, 1987) has a very isolated
record from the same area as today’s sighting, and the following comment:
“The number of birds coming into Victoria
vary from year to year and are highest during and immediately after dry
years,.….”.
Therefore,
while today’s sighting was certainly remarkable it seems that it was not
without precedent, nor
entirely unexpected.
Richard
Nowotny
