Quick snapshot.
We, EE, Mr An Onymous and I had gone up to Eynesbury for the Eynesbury Environmental Group’s Sunday walk in the forest.
We motored up in style in the An Blackmobile, and what other colour would Anonymous chose. (Let’s not go there).
We arrived in good time, thanks to great navigating by the unnamed driver. Chris, he of the awards, was waiting in the car park and the sun was shining. How good.
We waited for the rest to arrive, and heard a unusal call in the tree line at the carpark. A little searching and lo and behold, to our astonishment, and joy and delight, let it be said, there was a Swift Parrot at work in the tree, feasting on lerp.
Swift Parrots spend the summer in Tasmania nesting, then fly over the Tasman Sea to winter over on the mainland. But, and there lies the issue for conservationists. Many of the trees that they prefer for food are being decimated in the mad desire of humans to outpopulate themselves. The favoured tree, I’m told is Blue Gum, and they are vanishing as suburbs expand at an even more prodigious rate.
“Less than one thousand pairs” are left, according to reliable source. (BirdLife Australia) Which places the Swift Parrot on the Endangered List.
So we stopped and enjoyed the presence of these birds. About 10-12 on conservative count.
And then after about half an hour of entertaining us, true to their name, they turned on a wing, and were gone.
Enjoy
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER - --doesn't mean I'm LOST 
Lovely to see them, David! Beaut shots.
It is a problem as we lose habitats as the urban areas expand at a great rate. We no longer have the, albeit, small habitat between Hoppers Lane and the freeway because of the new hospital and medical centres. I haven’t seen the Black Falcon down there for some time now. Hopefully the area south of the high school and Sneydes Rd will remain untouched. I am seeing more birds there recently.
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G,day David,
i normally don’t chase these birds. I figure enough others keep them well covered. But it was just too good an opportunity to ignore.
The problem I guess is they don’ t have alternative feeding like say, Ravens, so any changes to their habitat is a problem.
We will I suppose just have to wait and see what the outcomes of the work with them produces.
Thanks for the interest
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How wonderful to the Swift they are not an easy bird to photograph as they are usually in fly. I am still waiting for an opportunity as there have been many sightings near here recently. Great shots David 😊
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Hi AB,
I think we were lucky as it was early in the morning, and they were tanking up for the day, and the lerp obviously were plentiful.
We may not see them again I suppose as they move so rapidly across the mainland.
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Stunning, wonder if there’ll be any today. I can’t go (last minute illness/ hospital of 1 y.o ) will be there in spirit Enjoy Ginny
Sent from my Ginny iPad
>
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What a thrill to see them, and for an extended period. Beautiful shots of course – thanks for sharing the experience with us.
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Thanks David for sharing this story and the pictures. I’ve got plenty of lerps on two Little Spotties in my garden but only the Wattlebirds and Noisy Miners come to feast. I’m happy to pay for an ad if there was some kind of Bird Advertiser they would care to read…
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