Flock Of Critically Endangered Swift Parrots Spotted In Northern NSW

The elusive, critically endangered swift parrot has long escaped the gaze of conservationists and passionate bird watchers alike as population numbers remain a challenge to track. However, a fresh sighting from a passionate bird watcher in New South Wales has reinvigorated hope in the fight to keep the colourful parrot species alive. And aren't they beautiful? James Bennett is the avid bird watcher who saw this flock and he joins us now from Kew near Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-north coast. James, g'day. So birders are renowned for their dedication to their mission and you seem to be super dedicated. You'd actually been out over the last month or so looking for the swift parrot? Yeah, that's right. The club, the local bird club has a bit of a yearly sort of competition to see who can see the most species and when you get down to the more rare things you sort of have to, I don't know, look for the rare things I guess. So I was since about mid-April checking spots where the swift parrot had turned up in the past. Yeah, and then came the moment. Describe for us what it was like for you when you came across one swift parrot, then five, then 10, then 50. Oh it was pretty cool. I mean it's a species I've seen before in Tasmania and in New South Wales but I hadn't seen it before on the mid-north coast and in Port Macquarie so it was actually raining at day and I had the windows down just listening out for the calls and it's got a pretty, you know the call when you hear it so it was a pretty cool feeling just knowing the significance of it and then another local bird had joined me and we were able to get a count of around 50 birds so it was very exciting. And you knew straight away this was something very special? Oh absolutely, as with any critically endangered species, if you've found one or you know just come across, as a birder it's a very, very cool, that's what we live for, you know we want to find these rare birds. At least as a lister as well, you know you want another bird on your list, you just want that next tick so it was very, very exciting. Yeah and I'm not sure if we've got the photo of you but when you go out birding you're in the full camouflage gear, you really get into it. Were you in the camouflage gear for this one or you mentioned you wound the windows down, it was raining so bad you were in a car, were you? Oh look, every now and then with the more cryptic species that are, you know, sort of more in dense bushland it's kind of hard to get a good look at them so with the ghillie suit on it's a little easier but no, with these I was just driving around with the windows down in the car listening out for that classic swift parrot call. Yeah and speaking of that, not only are they very pretty birds but they've also got quite the unique call and we can take a listen to that right now. Yeah and so was there quite a cacophony when you saw this group? Oh look, even when it was raining I think most of the birds were sort of hunkered down but this, I'd parked the car under a eucalypt tree that they were in and so lucky enough I could hear them just sort of making their light warbling sort of call and I was able to get onto them pretty quickly but yeah all the other birds I think were just hunkered down from the rain. And there's only kind of like a thousand or fifteen hundred of these like estimated in Australia? Yeah that's right, about a thousand birds is a good estimate I think. Last year they spent most of their time in Victoria so we didn't really see them in New South Wales so it's very exciting to have them back in the state for sure. And so did you win the prize in the local birding group? I think I made a few people very happy, a lot of people have gone to look for them they're still there actually, this is you know almost a week later and they're still using the habitat around Lake Kaddai and a lot of people have seen them so really good news. Yeah and how heartening is that for you? Oh it feels great, you know putting a smile on people's faces, a lot of the area that they're in is quite sort of residential so you got your cameras and a few people out on the street a lot homeowners come out wondering what's going on and they're actually, we can introduce them to the bird and say hey look you've got this in your front yard and it's pretty special and a lot of them are really excited to know that. Wow and so presumably you've got a full-time job as well but why are you so keen on birding generally? Look I'm actually a musician as my full-time thing so I travel around Australia anyway and it goes hand in hand with bird watching so I kind of, sometimes I've been guilty of booking gigs and shows around where I want to see birds so it's the perfect scenario. And do the bird calls inspire you musically at all? Ah I guess so in a way, listening to all sounds in nature is quite therapeutic and doing what I do for a living it's a very social thing so just that time away from people and getting into nature yeah it's very therapeutic and I think that's a big part of why I do it. And so when's the next birding trip coinciding fortuitously with your music gig? Ah look it's the next rare bird that shows up I'm pretty good at just getting in the car and going to chase it so it doesn't always have to be planned and quite often it's not planned so we'll see. Okay James congratulations on your find it's such a great little yarn and great to see the swift parrot there in such numbers around that in that Port Macquarie area and good luck with your birding. Thank you mate thanks for the chat.