Cheetham Wetlands and the Orange-bellied Parrot Count

On Saturday I spent a whole day in the field at a place called Cheetham Wetlands. From about 8:30 through 16:00 I was out walking and driving around one of the best urban wetlands in Australia. The reason I was there was the Orange-bellied Parrot count. OBP's as they are abbreviated to down here, are Australia's most endangered bird. There are known to be less than 200 in the wild, and the real figure could be as low as 130 individuals. There is a captive breeding program going to try and help them, but one of the largest problems is that they are migratory - they breed in Melaleuca in Tasmania's far south-west, and fly to southern Victoria and South Australia for the winter. This split lifestyle makes them very difficult to manage, and their highly specific mainland preference for saltbush (typically considered "rubbish" habitat by landowners) makes things even more difficult.

In a good year, we know the whereabouts of 20 of the 100+ individuals in winter on the mainland. At any one time it's usually considerably less. And that's where the OBP counts come in. There are four rounds of surveys organised during winter, and they run over a whole weekend. The general idea is to cover as much of the available habitat as possible, and report the places you find them (if you're lucky) and the places you don't. This past weekend, my place was Cheetham Wetlands.

While I didn't find any OBPs, I did find some Blue-winged Parrots. They are closely related, they're the same size, shape mostly the same colour (though a different set of shades of green). They're even in the same genus: Neophema. But Blue-winged Parrots are common, sometimes found in large numbers, non-migratory, and much less habitat specific. It was still great to see them - I've only ever seen them once before, as they are mostly restricted to southern Australia.

A little bit about Cheetham Wetlands. They are a conservation reserve managed by Parks Victoria, the local National Parks and Wildlife institution. Cheetham is made up of a series of artificial lagoons and one large natural lagoon, and are right on the coastline. There are two creeks running through the wetlands - Laverton Creek on the eastern boundary, and Skeleton Creek running through the heart of the wetlands. Apart from the lagoons themselves, the main habitat types on the reserve are saltbush and grasslands. They are important because they support internationally significant numbers of seven migratory shorebirds protected by international treaties, and nationally significant numbers of a further two species. They are also potential habitat for Orange-bellied Parrots, though I didn't see any, and they haven't been recorded there in recent times. The main threats to the wetlands are property developments, which are encroaching very close to the boundaries of the reserve, and illegal human use of the area for things like trail bikes, bicycles and dog walking. In an area set aside for wildlife to breed and for migratory birds to rest undisturbed to refuel for a journey to far nothern Siberia, this intrusion from humans is not only unwelcome it's dangerous to the wellbeing of the wildlife.

My day at Cheetham was a wonderful experience. I started in the morning with a quick walk beside what is known as RAAF Lake - it's next to an old airfield run by the airforce, now a strip for recreational planes and gliders. This is the site I found the Blue-winged Parrots at, feeding in the grass beside the road. I also found Pallid Cuckoos and a Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo flying around and being harried by the local birds worried about being cuckolded. A sure sign that spring is nearly here. From RAAF Lake I ventured in to the reserve itself. I had previously met with the parks ranger and received a key when I signed in. To get to my search area I went through three locked gates, and drove a few kilometers in until I reached the ford over Skeleton Creek. On the way I disturbed a Red-capped Plover that was nesting. I know it was nesting because it stood up and pretended to have a broken wing, trying to lead my car away from its nest. Once I was safely past, it rushed back to the nest (a patch of gravel - the eggs were completely invisible from where I was) and sat back down to keep the eggs warm.

From Skeleton Creek I stopped briefly to count the shorebirds on one of the nearby lagoons. There were good numbers of Curlew Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpipers, and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, as well as some other birds like Common Greenshank and Red-necked Stint. All of these are migratory shorebirds - they end up in places like Russia, Siberia, or even Alaska in our winter (the northern summer) where they breed before returning here for our summer. The birds I was seeing were likely just returning from the hard flight south, and indeed some of them still had remnants of breeding plumage. From the lagoon with the shorebirds I proceeded to spend several hours tramping through (as opposed to trampling on) then saltbush flats looking for Orange-bellied Parrots. While I didn't find any, it was great to walk around and get a feel for the area, and I saw some great things, like a pair of Brown Quail that I flushed from the edge of a grassland.

The best was save to last though, because as I was leaving the wetlands in the mid afternoon I reached the creek crossing and stopped. I had seen a rail, one of a group of shy and secretive birds that most birdwatchers love to see. Down here, there are two kinds of rail - the shy but common Buff-banded Rail, and the extremely shy and rare Lewin's Rail. As it turned out I saw a Buff-banded Rail, but as I walked back from investigating that bird, another rail across the other side of the ford ducked back into the fringing plants. I waited for some time, as patiently as I could, until finally I was rewarded with great views of a Lewin's Rail - the first time I have seen this species. It is an amazing bird, and it was especially satisfying because they are so difficult to see, and because I had excellent views and even managed to snap a few photographs.

So all in all my day at Cheethams was a great success. Even though I didn't find what I was looking for, I experienced an amazing and important reserve for birds, and saw some exciting species in the process. I look forward to going back there in summer for some migratory shorebird counts.

Chris