Swift parrots make a welcome Talbot visit | Nature Notes

These migratory Tasmanian parrots regularly visited the Clunes-Talbot-Maryborough forests almost every winter, but reduced flowering of eucalypts has resulted in them moving away from western Victoria for several years.

It is not the winter-flowering eucalypts - the ironbarks and the yellow gums - that have attracted them to Talbot because these trees are again flowering only lightly for yet another year.

A recent report from Talbot says: "Although some yellow gums are blossoming, the swift parrots prefer to spend their time lerping in grey box trees. They've been around since late July. They're scattered singly through tall trees, so it's hard to estimate numbers. There may be a dozen, perhaps 20, or more?"

The reference to lerping describes the Talbot birds feeding on lerps - sweet-tasting insect-coverings found on gum leaves. In this case, the lerps are on non-flowering grey box trees. "I am so lucky," the report says, "with swift parrots out the back gate nearly every day, maybe morning, maybe afternoon."

With so few reports of swift parrots in western Victoria this year, our Talbot observer is indeed fortunate to have had them feeding almost daily for a month. Observers from Clunes report two or three sightings a week, mostly of birds passing through, and just a few birds at a time.

Swift parrots visit Victoria each winter after nesting in Tasmania. Their numbers have greatly reduced because of habitat destruction in both their breeding and winter areas. Unfortunately, the winter-flowering eucalypts they normally rely on here have not flowered well for several years, forcing them to travel beyond central Victoria into northern NSW.

A pair of wood sandpipers visited Lake Wendouree two years ago, remaining all summer on the central mud islands. At the end of summer, they no doubt went back to their breeding site in Russia or Mongolia. Sadly, last year only one returned, presumably having lost its mate.

Now last year's lone bird has reappeared in the middle of Lake Wendouree - again on its own. There was every chance that it would mate up with another one and travel to its new mate's summer spot, or it might have brought its new mate here to spend summer at Lake Wendouree. But here it is, back with us, alone for another season.

Wood sandpipers breed in coniferous forests rather than on the edges of swamps. We in Australia do not associate migratory wading birds with forests.

Having got rid of the redfin in our dam, we have frogs in their hundreds by the sounds of them. What type of frog is this one?

D.T., Creswick.

This is a brown tree frog, also known as Ewing's tree frog. It is one of our more common and widespread local frogs, and calls readily on winter nights. The call is a bright, chirping one - a series of six or seven rapidly-repeated notes. The first note in the series is the longest.

Although long-known as the brown tree frog, colour is not constant, with some brown tree frogs being green. This is why some people use the name Ewing's tree frog. That name honours 19th century Tasmanian naturalist Reverend Thomas Ewing.

Frogs have been calling well this winter, probably indicating a lot of tadpoles appearing in wet places soon.