Hi all,
Its been fantastic to hear about the adventures of all who have made the
pilgrimage to Newhaven in search of Princess Parrots. As virtually the NT's
only significant piece of desert land managed solely for conservation, Newhaven
is certainly proving its worth to the world right now.
I have followed the speculation on Princess Parrots and 'Upsidedown' plants
with interest. I've seen captive managed Princess Parrots at the Alice Springs
Desert Park eat a huge range for foods including flowers (they especially enjoy
mealworms!). In the wild I have observed Princess Parrots appearing to drink
from or nibble Desert Bloodwood (Corymbia opaca) flowers but I didn't put too
much weight on it. I have seen every parrot species in the centre drink or
nibble flowers of some description at some point over the years, and as I
understand it Upsidedown Plants are not especially uncommon across the region
(I am no botanist though!). The majority of desert birds (in the dry sand
country particularly) become very opportunistic when it comes to sources of
moisture.
Something to bear in mind about desert birds is that unlike birds in mare
stable environments, their behaviour and habitat-use can change dramatically
with the strange climate which has shaped our deserts. Some deal with this by
becoming total nomads in the hope they will find good conditions somewhere
(i.e. Black Honeyeater will vanish from a site for years then reappear on mass
as soon as things green up). Some species stick it out if the habitat allows,
falling back on trusty refugia to survive (Dusky Grasswren would be a good
example of that- they are very loyal to their patch in hard years). Princess
Parrots tactics appear to me to be somewhere in the middle, retreating to
obscure refugia in the western deserts when times are tough (i.e. 9/10ths of
their lives!) but exploding out, travelling large distances when conditions
allow but on the whole still visiting sites which they have been known to use
in the past. My suspicion is that in boom years
their reliance on mature Marble Gum Eucalyptus gongylocarpa for breeding
hollows and an associated suite of productive desert grasses is probably the
best measure of what makes good PP habitats in wet years. Neither these gums or
the native grasses are thriving under the current dysfunctional fire regime in
the Centre. The dominance of weed grasses at sites where Princess Parrot were
known from in the past such as Alice's Simpsons Gap probably doesn't help
either, but despite all this it seems the birds are indeed having a good couple
of years. And as a result, so are birders!
What I would find of enormous interest would be more information on the birds
lives during the dry years when we can go almost years at a time between
sightings. Where are their most important refugias? Are they secure? What are
they eating?
Cheers
Mark Carter
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
