Back in February I reported that I had added a new bird to my garden list, when I saw a flock of Musk Lorikeets fly over and tracked them to a tall gum tree up the road.
The Musk Lorikeet (Glossopsitta concinna) is a beautifiul little parrot, that mostly feeds on the flowers of various Eucalyptus trees and that means they are usually rather high up for photographs. I did get a few pictures back in 1983 when a flock were feeding at the flowers of a Eucalyptus ficifolia, but those pictures were not very good.
24 years is a long time to wait, but yesterday I got another chance to see Musk Lorikeets close-up.
Fay and I went for a walk in the Edward Hunter bush reserve in Moe. At the outer end of our walk, I could hear a lot of Musk Lorikeets in the trees. I started searching for them and Fay, whose hearing is a great deal better than mine, said that the calls were coming from across the road. I went to the edge of the road and looked across to a private garden across the road and soon spotted the Lorikeets. They were feeding on apples on a tree in the garden opposite. The tree was close to the road and this meant that the birds were close enough to try for some photos.
I crossed the road and walked slowly along the nature strip until I was close to the apple tree and all the Lorikeets stayed in the tree feasting on apples. I took a couple of pictures, and then a woman came out of the house, walked to her car and drove away. Unfortunately, she passed so close to the apple tree that the Lorikeets (there must have been 40 or so) erupted out of the tree and flew squealing up into the trees back across the road in the reserve.
I had a look at the two pictures I got, and although better than any previous pictures, they were not very sharp, so I decided to see if the parrots would return. I crossed back to the reserve and waited watching to see if the apples would lure the parrots back. For a long time nothing happened although several parrots flew into a gum tree in the same garden as the apple tree. Fay decided to leave me to it and she walked back to the car, while I waited a bit longer. It wasn't long before two Lorikeets flew back into the apple tree, so I decided it was worth waiting a lot longer. Then they gradually began to filter back, first one, then a couple more and gradually the numbers built up. I decided to wait until at least 15 were in the apple tree. I then crossed over the road, but before I approached the tree, more parrots arrived and soon there were about 25 feeding on the apples.
I moved along the nature reserve to the closest spot and the parrots stayed in the tree, but then a little dog started barking and came across towards me. The parrots still stayed, so I ignored the dog and got a couple of pictures, and then the owner of the house came out to see what his dog was barking at. I told him I was trying to photograph the Musk Lorikeets that were feeding on his apples and he was interested, took a quick look at the parrots in his tree, wished me good luck and taking his dog with him, went back indoors.
At last I was clear to concentrate on the parrots and although they mostly stayed on the far side of the tree, or else had their heads buried deep in an apple, I was able to take some 17 photos, of which 10 or so were worth keeping.
I eventually left them still feasting on apples and made a brisk walk back to rejoin Fay at the car.
Here is a Musk Lorikeet (with the head of another one behind its wing-tips):
