We went to the Western Treatment Plant yesterday and saw a huge load of birds including 2 immature OBPs and 4 Spotted Crakes near the birdhide. There were so many other birds and my dad took most of the shots and I took a couple of the OBS's as well but I forgot which pics are who's!
It was by far the best day's birding of my life!
Orange-bellied Parrot!
One of mine
One of dad's, you can tell the difference!
Australian Spotted Crake near birdhide
With nesting material
White-bellied Sea Eagle making the gate look tiny
In flight
Zebra Finch near ford over Little River
Eurasian Skylark
Golden-headed Cisticola
Great Egret
Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo with caterpillar
Black-shouldered Kite courtship dance which was great to watch, even the wingbeats were at the same time!
A very tame Brown Falcon that landed near the car at Little River.
Thanks for looking and enjoy!
Fantastic variety of birds, Owen, and wonderful quality of photos. That courtship dance would have been very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
They're all great Owen. What a thrill it must have been to see the OBPs. I participated in the OBP survey last year and we didn't see a single bird. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
George
Melbourne, VIC
Thanks. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time for the parrots as we noticed them ambling along in the car and quickly stopped the car to look at them out the window. They didn't seem too worried about the car and eventually they casually flew off down into the coastal shrubs beside the road and we didn't see them again.
Cheers, Owen.
Owen, you and your Dad are a fantastic team! Again and again, great finds, and great shots!!! Remember the last time you took photos, of what you thought were Orange-bellied Parrots? Have you compared the photos yet? Me, looking at them,I still feel the others were OBPs too?? M-L
M-L
What a great set Owen, looks like you and your dad had a ripper day, well done on the Orange Bellies.
Thanks. I have compared the shots Araminta and the others are much duller with more blue on their wing without Orange bellies and these ones were so much brighter.
Cheers, Owen.
luvly pics just wonderful.
if your happy when your birding, flap your wings.
Great pic's owen
Lovely to have days like that. Looking forward to getting down there soon myself. Looks like its getting pretty lively again. Love the pic's of the crake. Always good to see the OBPs still around. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks lots for replying everyone. Reckless it is good that they are still seen sometimes and there is hope yet with over 150 birds in captivity. The drawback is that apparently they are extremely hard to breed in captivity so it might take a while to build the population.
Cheers, Owen.
What an amazing experience it would have been to see all these birds, particularly the OBP. Excellent photos too, seems like a brilliant experience.
Thanks cooee.
Cheers, Owen.
It certainly did my soul a power of good seeing the OBPs, Owen. What a relief they're not extinct! Many years ago I participated in winter surveys in the Coorong. On 1 occasion my wife tracked down 12. Another time we saw several OBPs with blue-winged parrots & rock parrots in a field of sunflowers near Langhorne Creek. A sight to behold.
Fantastic photos. Could I contact you offline? Or could you ring me? 0402 887 248. I was wondering if I could put links on facebook page 'Save the Orange-bellied Parrot'.
Debbie
Woko that would have been great to see the three different Neophema species together especially in a nice field.
Debbie I might try and call you in the next few days.
Cheers, Owen.
It was indeed, Owen. One of those special bird watching moments. The owner of the field deliberately planted the sunflower crop to attract OBPs as he was concerned about their survival as a species.
I was interested to learn that the captive breeding programme still proceeds and at the number of OBPs involved. Are they releasing any into the wild?
When I was involved in the surveys in the 1980s it was estimated only about 200 OBPs survived. Do you have any idea of the current estimate?
Thanks Owen and well done.
I think a day out like that would be just about everyone's best days birding in their life! All your shots are wonderful, and what a nice variety of birds as well! Looks like a great day out, and isn't seeing and snapping that OBP special as well, thanks for sharing, it's legendary mate :)
Thanks again guys. The estimate now is only 45 birds left.
Cheers, Owen.
You are invited to view 'Save the Orange-bellied Parrot' on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/savetheobp where there's news and photos and plenty of debate.
Towards the bottom are several opinion pieces with info etc.
Plenty of links to news items.
You don't have to be on facebook to view it but I'm not sure if the link above will work.
Please don't give specific details of sightings. Use a name that suggests what you want.
Hope to see you all there.
PS The estimate is between 35 and 50 in the wild.
There are 180 in captivity.
Hi Owen, Again, please be careful! It is not a good idea to hand out phone numbers or talk to people off line!M-L
M-L
My last post didn't seem to work.
I don't want to upset anybody and I certainly don't want their number. I posted mine so Owen could ring and give permission if he's OK with his photos going on 'Save the Orange-bellied Parrot'. Plenty of people just post photos without asking, as we know.
My name is Debbie Lustig and if you Google me, you'll find several articles about the OBP.
I've also organised media coverage on radio, TV and print, all of which you'll find links to on the Facebook page.
I want nothing more than to raise public awareness of this wonderful bird and the idea of unscrupulous people is truly horrid.
I've just done Sunday's BA July survey; have done numerous surveys and visited Werribee dozens of times.
I am not a ratbag, OK!
PS Birdline forum has a policy of posting OBP sightings only 3 weeks afterwards to try and limit inundation of sites.
Thanks for having me and sorry if anyone got offended.
OK if you see this Holly please delete the posts where I have given details in best photos and also surveys & interesting sightings. That might clear things up.
Cheers, Owen.
Thanks for the numbers-in-the-wild update, Owen. That's very sad & very disturbing. Still, it's better than none & while there's life there's hope, I hope. The fact that there are considerably more birds in captivity than in the wild is a real indictment on our society's attitude towards its biodiversity. (I think that's my 3rd rant for the day & it's only 10.05 here). Let's hope the captive breeding programme will be successful.
Great shots all around Owen! well done mate. :-)
Done Owen - sorry I missed this thread earlier (I was wondering when I was reading the other thread why you didn't post photos lol).
Thanks for the responses everyone and thanks so much Holly. I feel better now!
Cheers, Owen.
Owen congratulations on a wonderful day's sightings and some great shots...you must be over the moon with that lot.
I have not been on line much but if you need me to do anything and you cant get Holly just ask M-L to try me .
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Thanks so much Birdie. It's good that you've offered help I really appreciate it.
Cheers, Owen.
Awesome stuff, Owen! I would repeat what everyone else has said. Superb shots from you and your dad. So happy for you to spot the OBPs.
Good luck with the 45 left.
Taz
Thanks Taz. Just today I saw another new bird in creek bushland 20 minutes from home. It was a Crescent Honeyeater and I'm not even sure they are meant to occur in our local area. I only found it because I heard the call and recognized it from a sound recording.
Cheers, Owen.
Wow Owen, you are on a roll :) Must be your lucky week - very lucky. Hope you get to locate the source of the call and get a photo-documentation of the Crescent Honeyeater sighting for confirmation. Another down - 44 to go.
If this is out of 850-odd species in Australia then I am gobsmacked.
Taz
Taz the 45 meant how many OBPs are left in the wild!
I have seen 205 Australian birds and will probably get nowhere near seeing all of them!
I got a crappy photo from behind of the Crescent HE. If you want me to post it let me know.
Cheers, Owen.
O, O, Owen, do we want to see "the crappy photo FROM BEHIND ?", come on, show it to us!!!!
M-L
Magnificent variety mate and superb shots....what a day that must have been. There is a Face book page for the Orange Bellied Parrot breeding programe if your interested mate.
Thx for sharing the pics...well done.
Congratulations on such a sighting. Its something you'll treasure forever. I would absolutely love to see OBPs
Thanks guys. I certainly won't forget seeing them. I didn't know if they were OBP's at first because I couldn't believe that I had seen such a rare bird.
Cheers, Owen.
These are amazing photo's Owen! Congratualtions and well done! Thank you for sharing them with us all
From the stunning Yarra Vally Mountains!