More accounts of possible sightings north of Perth

The accounts above are taken from the unpublished report 'Search for Western Ground Parrots in the northern sandplain 2007' by Brenda Newbey and Renee Hartley, as are the two accounts in the previous posting. All, except the Herriot account which sparked the survey, came to light as a result of the survey publicity.

Ray Woods' sighting could well have been an adult male with a dependent fledgling as at that early stage young Western Ground Parrots have a lot of brown in their plumage.

The Badgingarra farmer's record is very interesting. The bush adjacent to his property appeared to be excellent ground parrot habitat. Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters (TCHE) in that bush used calls that were extremely close to ground  parrot calls as described in the 2007 survey  report: 'One call in particular was very deceptive, and it was not  until volunteer John Tucker followed then observed the TCHE making the call that we could be sure it was not a ground parrot.'

A search north of Perth

It was a long time before there was a detailed search for Western Ground Parrots (WGPs) north of Perth. The sighting that sparked the search was that by Shane Heriot (see above), a cold trail as the sighting was six years before the search.

This posting and the next two postings will be extracts from the search report (unpublished). It is titled Search for Western Ground Parrots in the northern sandplain 2007, and is by Brenda Newbey and Renee Hartley. The project was an initiative of Birds Australia WA (now Birdlife WA) and was strongly supported by the Department of Environment and Conservation (now Department of Parks and Wildlife).

It should be noted that all confirmed WGP records in C20 and so far this century have been in the vicinity of the south coast of Western Australia, not the west coast.

The page below is page one of a brochure that was prepared and distributed in the search area of the northern sandplain prior to and during the survey period. Very few WGPs remain: most of the south coast sites no longer support WGPs. The estimated number of WGPs has declined since the brochure was prepared in 2007.

Western Ground Parrots North of Perth

The Western Ground Parrot’s range did extend north of Perth and it is possible that a few remnant birds are still there. The efforts to search the area have been quite limited. Below are brief extracts from a report by Edwin Ashby published in Emu, Volume XX, January 1921, by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists’ Union.

The area of sandplain that Ashby refers to is roughly a right-angled triangle with the longest axis measuring about 165 km. Much of the area is now farmland and although there are a couple of large reserves, they are frequently burnt.

NOTES ON BIRDS OBSERVED IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA,

FROM PERTH NORTHWARDS TO GERALDTON.

BY  Edwin Ashby, F.L.S., M.B.O.U., Wittunga, Blackwood.

S.A.

Mr. J. W. Mellor and the writer visited Geraldton, 370 miles north

of Perth ; but, except for one day at Geraldton and part of a day

at Moora, our observations were made separately. By this means

we were able to cover more ground, each visiting different

localities. …….

I did not see any specimens of the Western Ground Parrot

(Pezoporus flaviventris), but I got such an accurate description of it,

both its appearance, habits, and flight, that there is not the slightest

doubt in my mind that 25 years ago it was scattered freely through

the sand-plain country between Dongara and Watheroo. Since then

the denseness of the bush has been greatly reduced by the constant

fires. My informant—an old man of exceptional observing powers

—was confident that fires are the real cause of the disappearance of

this and other birds. This view endorses my own observations. I

was not aware of the “ Ground-Parrot " having been before recorded

as inhabiting these northerly sand-plains, and it should still be

searched for in such districts that have been missed by fires…….

Western Ground Parrots at Audley End House

A few years ago, Simon Nevill who is very knowledgeable about Australian birds, visited Audley End Museum and to his surprise saw three mounted Ground Parrots.

Audley End House, Essex, England, is a palace in all but name. The collections there include many birds from Australia.

Simon brought back a copy of some documentation about the consignment that included the Ground Parrots. It was sent from “Freemantle Swan River” on the Unicorn. The accompanying list and letter is dated 10 December 1845. (Note that the British Swan River colony was only established in 1829.) All of the specimens were from Western Australia, so the Ground Parrots are definitely Western Ground Parrots.

The recipient was Richard Cornwallis Neville, 4^th Lord Braybrooke, an avid collector of natural history and archeology, whose home was Audley End House.

We have not been able to determine who the sender was, but he describes occupying himself during a period of sickness when he was unable to read, with making a large collection of fauna from different parts of Western Australia and skinning, preserving and stuffing them.

The collection sent to Lord Braybrooke was indeed large comprising at least 95 birds including an Emu, at least 19 quadrupeds including Rock Wallabies, a dingo and a pair of Dalgytes (Bilbies), and 6 reptiles.

A little of the handwritten text is reproduced below. The Ground Parrots are most likely numbers 8 and 9 although the native name there is that which appears in Serventy and Whittell (1967) Birds of Western Australia for the Elegant Parrot which is at number 12 on the list. Below the handwritten text is much of the accompanying letter, transcribed by the museum. The photo of Audley End House is from Wikipedia.

Nest with Ground Parrot feathers

The photo is by Ray Garstone. It was taken in Cape Arid National Park in the 1970s and was a confirmation that Western Ground Parrots were in the area. The nest belongs to a Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, a species that is common in most locations where Western Ground Parrots have been found. Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters nest close to the ground in a small shrub.

Subsequently, searching for evidence of Ground Parrot presence included examination of nests of these honeyeaters and also of the Rufous Fieldwren, another species common in parts of the Western Ground Parrot habitat.

From John Gould 1848

Digitized by the National Library of Australia.

Green Ground Parrot

The pages above are from the first book devoted exclusively to parrots in captivity.  

Greene, W.T. (1883). Parrots in Captivity. London: George Bell and Sons. The book has been digitized by the National Library of Australia.

At that time, Australia was a geographical rather than a political label and did not include the island of Tasmania. The New Zealand version is the Kakapo which has now been classified into a separate genus. Australian Ground Parrots are now known to be neither insectivorous nor eaters of tubers.

The illustrations are chromoxylographs - wood-engraved plates, colour printed and hand finished, by Benjamin Fawcett. The original drawings were by A.F. Lyndon.

The last paragraph (below) in the section on the Green Ground Parrot expresses a sentiment that seems a little strange nowadays or perhaps it is just the way it is put.

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