BIRDING IN ROYAL PARK

Recently I joined the Friends of Royal Park on a bird survey. We started at Trin Warren Tam-Boore, where we noted all the usual suspects: Red Wattlebirds, Noisy Miners (of course!), Rainbow Lorikeets, magpies, Magpie-larks and Willie Wagtails. Welcome Swallows swooped over the water and the exotics were present in good numbers: mynas, Spotted Doves, Rock Doves. The glorious song of Grey Butcherbirds took my mind off these interlopers. A noisy white cocky drowned out the butcherbird, but I was busy adding Australasian Grebe, Grey Teal, swamphens and moorhens to my list. The best bird from my point of view, was a Tawny Frogmouth roosting in a gumtree near the carpark. In fact there were two. The Friends said that they were often there.

We did not see any fairywrens, but the Friends told me an interesting story. There is an old female Superb Fairywren who has started to exhibit male characteristics who lives at Trin Warren Tam-Boore. She has a blue tail and, in the breeding season, a little blue colouring on her head. The Friends told me that, because she is old, her testosterone levels have built up, thus giving her some male features. She has been nicknamed Dame Edna. (Which, of course, is back to front: a male masquerading as a female, rather than a female masquerading as a male.) I would like to meet Dame Edna.

We walked on into an area the Friends called 'Skink Habitat.' We saw kookaburras, House Sparrows and New Holland Honeyeaters. Then we were entertained by a wonderful display of several hyperactive Grey Fantails with both Striated and Spotted Pardalotes. They brought a smile to my face. Of course there were Pied Currawongs and Crested Pigeons. We heard Bell Miners (only appropriate, as that's what Trin Warren Tam-Boore is named after) and had great views of a female Australian Golden Whistler. Nothing too exciting, but an enjoyable walk with like minded people. Last Saturday I was pleased to attend a meeting conducted by the Friends of Royal Park, to learn about three projects presently underway: one studying Superb Fairywrens, one about White's Skink and the third about a matchstick grasshopper. Numbers of both grasshoppers and skinks are declining and causing concern. But of course I was there to learn about fairywrens. I was hoping to learn more about Dame Edna, but I did not.

This lovely photo of Dame Edna was taken by Peter Petinatos, and I'd like to thank him for it. The fairywren project at Royal Park is being jointly undertaken by the City of Melbourne, Birdlife Australia, Melbourne University and RMIT. We were told that fairywrens are vulnerable everywhere around the city because of loss of habitat and predation by cats. (I was interested that foxes were not mentioned.) Fairywrens breed every year and females disperse after breeding, moving up to eight kilometres away. Where do they go? Fairywrens require dense vegetation, and the project aims to discover whether revegetation will facilitate movement of fairywrens. Will the population increase, and, if so, where will these birds come from? All the fairywrens in the area have been banded. They have a blue metal band on their left leg and a unique two colour combination plastic band on their right leg. Birders are requested to report sightings of banded fairywrens. There was great excitement this week when the first banded fairywren was reported from the zoo. Forty-four designated sites have been selected. Birders are asked to go to a site, sit still for 5 minues, then count birds for 10 minutes. Report finds to superbcitywrens.com. I certainly plan to contribute to this project. Anything we can do to help save our small birds is worth doing!