The Gap Year and Beyond

I have been to Mallacoota each December for the last 4 years looking for birds that don’t often make it into Victoria or live anywhere near Melbourne. Some of the birds are resident in the Mallacoota area like the Southern Emu-wren, the Eastern Bristlebird and the Eastern Ground Parrot. I have seen the rare Ground Parrot several times early in the morning at Shipwreck Creek – about 15kms outside of Mallacoota. On previous occasions the bird/s flushed and were gone, and going off track into the snake infested heathland did not help me re-find them. On this trip I thought I would just go early every morning until I had a chance to photograph this rare and shy parrot. On the first attempt I stalked so slowly and carefully along the path that I startled a large deer that was only a few metres off the track behind a thick bush. I am not sure who was more frightened. I thought I had no chance of finding the parrot with all the noise the deer made taking off through the undergrowth but about 50m further on a parrot flushed from the opposite side of the track where I was expecting to see it and instead of trying to photograph it in a mad panic, I carefully watched where it flew and stalked it further into the scrub. Taking a lot of time and winding my way through all the heath I found a small over-grown track and whilst surveying the path for likely spots I found the small parrot just sitting on branch watching me. I took a series of shots and moved closer and around the parrot trying to get better angles. Eventually it ducked down onto the path and disappeared into the thick heath.

Eastern Ground Parrot, Shipwreck Creek, Mallacoota, Victoria

II

with a beautiful long tail almost hidden by the grass

IV

V

Eastern Ground Parrot camouflaged in the heath foliage…