On May 14, eleven dedicated people set out in cold, showers and wind to the Hospital Swamp wetlands at Lake Connewarre in the hope of seeing an Orange-bellied Parrot (OBP). Unsurprisingly we did not see any but we had a wonderful day with 55 birds identified (full list at end of report).
We have been very excited to learn that the following day two adult OBPs were seen elsewhere at Lake Connewarre.
The highlight for us was seeing over 180 Blue-winged parrots swooping around in flocks, with many periodically landing on an easily observable wire fence so we could study them before they returned to the Beaded Glasswort in the nearby paddocks.
We thank Margaret Lacey for all the photos on this page
Blue-winged parrots on fence
We were most fortunate to have with us Craig Morley, the local OBP organizer, as he was a mine of information on the differences and characteristics of Blue-winged Parrots and OBPs. He also considerably increased our bird list as he made instant identifications of birds which were barely seen or heard.
We were also delighted to see a mass of Black-winged Stilts and Purple Swamphens. Other birds of special interest were two Stubble Quail, four types of raptor, and a glimpse of an Australian Pratincole. Not so pleasant was seeing much evidence of duck shooting. The gunshots were causing flocks of ducks to take off in fright and fly to new locations.
We were also pleased to have Margaret Lacey and her camera with us.
Ellinor Campbell
Below are all the birds identified on this walk:
- Stubble Quail
- Black Swan
- Australian Shelduck
- Australian Wood Duck
- Grey Teal
- Chestnut Teal
- Pacific Black Duck
- Australasian Grebe
- Spotted Dove
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Little Black Cormorant
- Australian Pelican
- Eastern Great Egret
- White-faced Heron
- Australian White Ibis
- Straw-necked Ibis
- Royal Spoonbill
- Yellow-billed Spoonbill
- Whistling Kite
- Brown Goshawk
- Swamp Harrier
- Brown Falcon
- Purple Swamphen
- Spotless Crake
- Black-winged Stilt
- Masked Lapwing
- Australian Pratincole
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
- Crimson Rosella
- Eastern Rosella
- Red-rumped Parrot
- Blue-winged Parrot
- Superb Fairy-wren
- White-browed Scrubwren
- Striated Fieldwren
- White-plumed Honeyeater
- Noisy Miner
- White-fronted Chat
- New Holland Honeyeater
- Grey Shrike-thrush
- Grey Butcherbird
- Australian Magpie
- Willy Wagtail
- Little Raven
- Magpie-lark
- Eurasian Skylark
- Golden-headed Cisticola
- Little Grassbird
- Welcome Swallow
- Tree Martin
- Common Starling
- House Sparrow
- Australasian Pipit
- European Goldfinch
- Common Greenfinch