I was at my aunts flat in Apollo Bay. I heard lorikeets flying past and landing on a tree in a nearby street. My ears pricked up. They weren’t rainbow lorikeets!
I’m horrid with bird calls, but we get a lot of rainbow lorikeets in Geelong. I’ve become very familiar with their different calls and the shapes of their bodies when flying. I know when something is different.
I got my camera and rushed to the street. I was right! There were a lot of musk lorikeets in this particular tree – and they were close to eye level.
We get musk lorikeets in Geelong, but I mostly see them higher in the gum trees. This is the case for most of the local lorikeet species. The only exception was the scaly breasted lorikeet, which we saw in a similar tree.
I visited this tree most days during our break. By the end of the week, most of them had moved on.