On Saturday Simon Mustoe reported an
Orange-bellied Parrot near the T-section Lagoons at the Western Treatment
Plant. Fred Smith and I were not
aware of this on Sunday when we went looking for the 4 Blue-winged Parrots Fred
had seen in this area the previous Saturday. We managed to find 11 Blue-winged
Parrots which were feeding with 2 Orange-bellied Parrots. We tried for over an hour to determine
whether one or both of the OBP’s was banded, as they feed on the ground
on a plant I think is Goosefoot. We
both clearly saw a band on the left leg of one of the birds, which appeared to
us to be a bright emerald green. We
could not see a band on the right leg.
I then thought I saw a band of the same colour on the left leg of the
second bird, but I was not completely sure. Both birds seemed to me to be first
autumn-winter immatures (dusky grey on upper mandible, but frontal band
greenish-blue and quite indistinct).
These 2 birds were feeding in the same place as 2 OBP early arrivals
Fred saw last year.
Our other highlights for the day were:
200-300 Freckled Duck (I counted over 200 but there were many others on the
adjacent lagoon which I could not see properly); a Flame Robin at the mouth of
the Little River (Fred saw 6 there yesterday); Sharp-tailed Sandpipers,
Red-necked Stints and White-winged Black Terns in full breeding plumage; 5
Common Terns (Michael Seyfort had seen over 20 earlier in the day) and 7 Fairy
Terns; some unusual passerines for the WTP (presumably moving through)
including 5 Mistletoebirds, 2 Crested Shriketits, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters
(regular winter visitors) and Spotted and Striated Pardalotes; many Cape Barren
Geese (now a regular feature); nesting Darters; and a dozen Black-tailed
Native-hens crammed together under a one metre wide Boxthorn to escape the
attentions of a quite interested Swamp Harrier.
In all we saw exactly 100 species on the
WTP for the day.
John Barkla
