Long-billed Corella, Peregrine Falcon

I ducked into the St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland yesterday afternoon with a few administrative things I had to do there, but also with a mind to finding what is probably my second most contentious feral bird for the year. Long-billed Corellas have been around and breeding in the western suburbs of Brisbane for many years, certainly longer than the ten required to meet the standard twitchers' guidelines. It still feels a little wrong to include them on a list. I suppose this is because they are a native Australian parrot, found wild in the border country between South Australia and Victoria. Because they are a native, and clearly an escapee, I think introduces a mental barrier to ticking them that doesn't exist for something like a House Sparrow, whose native range is in Europe. Nonetheless, in this quest for 350 species I can't afford to be too choosy, and if I say Long-billed Corella isn't allowed I would really have to drop Common Starling, Common Myna, House Sparrow and Nutmeg Mannikin from my list also, plus wouldn't be able to add Common Blackbird when I find one. That's 6 species off the total, which I can't afford. I of course left one feral out of that list, one which I'll address in another post. That feral is Northern Mallard, the most contentious feral on the list and one I may or may not add for different reasons.

I'm not sure how difficult most people find telling Little and Long-billed Corellas apart, but the two species make very different calls if your ears are tuned in. I found my first Long-billed Corellas in a flock of a few hundred Littles within five minutes of stepping out of my car. It was a mum feeding a baby, with dad in a nearby tree looking on, so in some ways that helped alleviate my twitcher's guilt as it was proof that they are breeding in the wild up here. I completed all the other things I had to do and was heading back to my car when all the Noisy Miners in the area started clamoring. For those of you who have birded the east coast of Australia, you would know that Noisy Miners make great raptor alarms, and sure enough, a dark shape was cruising overhead. A dark shape which quickly resolved into a Peregrine Falcon, a new bird for the year and my first for the St Lucia area! So a simple afternoon doing some administrative tasks turned into a two-bird day, possibly my last in the Brisbane suburbs. It's all uphill from here...

Total birds to date: 260