Well, it’s pretty much my second last week here in Australia, after a more than 4-month stay. Throughout the whole time I have been pursuing parrots. Actually, the first parrots were easy – the Rainbow Lorikeets I was tending at our temporary abode while the owners my hosts, Paul and Leslie Weston were on holiday. The pair of Rainbow Lorikeets and their young child were caged – just as we see parrots in North America.
However, just as rainbow lorikeets also range free here, there are many other parrots about. I quickly learned to recognized their quick flight, with their long tails streaming out behind. I would chase after them with my camera, and they would usually settle in a high tree. By the time I caught up to them, they were usually nearly invisible in the tree, or on their way to the next tree. However, over time I gradually lucked out and managed to snap a few photos before they winged away – like these Eastern Rosellas below who distracted me one morning when I should have been getting to my work at Charles Sturt University.
Even in our backyard here in the Lake Albert district of Wagga Wagga, I was able to get some nice photos of the light-colour form of the Crimson Rosella by the bird bath one evening.
Around Lake Albert itself, I have been able to see the beautiful little Red-Rumped Parrot (see below) from time to time, and show them off to my parents visiting from London, Ontario, Canada.
However, generally parrots have been a pretty frustrating lot to photograph…until this past week when we travelled to Sydney where I gave a talk at Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury Institute of the Environment. Our hosts there, Jonathan and Krista Plett recommended that Deb and I head off to the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden one afternoon, and we were not disappointed. Indeed, the parrots there were very cooperative for the camera, with two species in particular making spectacular subjects: the Australian King-Parrot and the Crimson Rosella.
As you’ll see in the video below, the Australian King-Parrot is not afraid to make its presence known, and likewise it was fun watching the foraging Crimson Rosellas. Almost like watching captive parrots, but different. Indeed, most of the time here the parrots go screaming right by me in flight – wild and free!
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