My wife and I were driving south through Narooma today and heard a
flock of small, excited parrots that we didn't recognize. (Rainbow and
Musk Lorikeets are common and familiar here but calls from any other
small parrot/lorikeet stand out immediately as different.) Suspecting
they were Swift Parrots, we pulled over to have a look. We found a
mixed flock of Swift Parrots and Rainbow Lorikeets working some trees
near the olympic pool (for those that know Narooma.) It was hard to
get much of a look at the parrots but they seemed to be shifting
steadily to a group of gums directly in front of the visitor's center.
We walked over there and had excellent looks at numerous Swift
Parrots. They definitely looked to be gleaning lerps off of leaves but
may have been working some of the blossoms as well. For sure we could
see them scraping along the flat sides of gum leaves with no blossoms
in sight.
We were hoping to get some kind of count but the birds weren't making
it easy. Small groups kept flying in and out of the trees and while in
the trees, the birds were in constant movement. A Red Wattlebird was
spending its time charging into the Swift Parrots which would flush
groups from one tree to another. At one point, I saw 22 Swift Parrots
move while there were many more in the surrounding trees.
This is the first time we've had really satisfying looks at these
birds....they're fantastic!
And (non-birding) people sometimes wonder why I always bring
binoculars when leaving the house!
David Adams
Wallaga Lake NSW 2546
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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