Karaarf
Wetland, 21 July 2012
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Over
the years I have conducted dozens of Orange-bellied Parrot surveys at Karaarf
Wetlands (the Point Impossible Saltmarsh), near Torquay, but more recently I
have tended to conduct my regular surveys at other nearby expanses of saltmarsh
instead.
On 21 July 2012, having visited
the nearby creek estuary to look at the wintering Double-banded Plovers, as an
afterthought I decided to renew my acquaintance with the wetland, and tramped
into the saltmarsh. I simply wanted to
see what birds were about, and watching parrots was the last thing on my mind.
The
going is never easy at this site, as extensive sections are vegetated with tall
Shrubby Glasswort bushes which are largely impenetrable, and so I kept mainly
to the ‘creeks’ that meander through the area as well as the trails that are
trampled by the resident kangaroos.
After I had trudged through the saltmarsh for some time,
surrounded by the usual species — White-fronted Chats, Little Grassbirds,
Striated Fieldwrens, Eurasian Skylarks and the like — I stopped and scanned
across the canopy of the vegetation, and was surprised to see a Blue-winged
Parrot in the very top of a shrub, only about 20 metres away. I was even more surprised to see through my
binoculars a couple of much brighter parrots among the foliage of the same bush
— Orange-bellied Parrots!
The
longer I looked, the more parrots I could see clambering about among the
foliage, but it was the two bright ones that held my attention. I was able to creep closer to them, and tick
off the characteristic features of Orange-bellied Parrots; they were easily compared
with the nearby Blue-winged Parrots.
After
confirming my rare sighting, I tried to obtain a view from a different angle to
see whether they were banded (their legs were obscured by the grey-green foliage
from this front-on angle). When I moved,
I managed to flush all of the birds (a total of six BWPs and two OBPs). As they flew off, the two Orange-bellied
Parrots gave their characteristic buzzing call, something I had not heard for
at least 15 years, but it was, nevertheless, instantly recognisable.
Tellingly, the Blue-winged Parrots flew off
to the south and circled around, quickly returning to roughly the same spot,
while the two Orange-bellied Parrots flew off separately to the north-east,
continuing in a straight line, gaining elevation all the while until they were
lost to sight.
Subsequent
searches of this and nearby wetlands over the next few days failed to relocate
them.
Interestingly,
my previous record of the species was also at this wetland, but in an entirely
different section of the saltmarsh. After
that sighting, perhaps 15 years ago, I had always assumed that it was to be my
last…
John Peter
Senior Writer, Birdlife Australia