Pages

Monday, October 22, 2012

Budgies in the Outback

Courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Commission On-line News:

Thousands of budgerigars have been seen around Central Australian waterways. 
(File image) (Audience submitted: ABC News)

A zoologist in Central Australia says he has never seen so many budgerigars congregating around waterholes. Anthony Molyneux from the Alice Springs Desert Park says the explosion of budgie numbers is a rare phenomenon.
"The largest flock I've seen is about 5,000," he said. "I was sitting on a dam wall and they flew up and around me. It gave me goose bumps. It's an experience that I will never forget and will stay with me forever. If you see them in the distance it looks like a swarm of insects until you work out that that's so many thousands of budgies. So it's certainly a sight to behold, that's for sure."
He says the birds are thriving on abundant seeding grass across the region. There have been reports of flocks of up to 15,000 budgies at waterholes from Alice Springs to Barrow Creek.
"I've been in Alice (Springs) a bit over 13 years and I've never seen this many around ... so it's a classic boom and bust," Mr Molyneux said. "It's a boom period for them. We're coming into the breeding season now so those large numbers will breed, so we can probably expect this to go on for a little bit."

I can only say that its a good thing that JohnG from over at Going Gently is still in Trelawnyd, North Wales, or he'd be putting on an extra large pair of 'Undies' and doing a bit of gross 'budgie smuggling'! LoL!

Sydneysiders flock to Martin Place hoping to set the world record for the biggest swimwear parade. All proceeds go to the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) charity.




5 comments:

Cindy@NorthofWiarton said...

I have never seen Budgies in their own environment before, other then ever in a cage ... cool photo. Ha! yeppers could be lots of budgie pantie smuggling going on ... you might get a visit when you least expect it from Mr. Gray (hahahaha)

Elephant's Child said...

We used to see small flocks of them when we lived in central west NSW, but the thought of fifteen thousand budgies is awe inspiring.
The last budgie I saw was in a pet shop in Argentina. Which brought tears to my eyes.

Doc said...

They are such a fun cheerful lot (the budgies not the Speedo clad lot) I always kept an aviary full of them in the back garden.

Gill - That British Woman said...

I keep forgetting that you have budgies in the wild where you live. My nana always had a budgie in a cage.

Gill

JohnD said...

Budgerigars are native to Australia. Budgerigars are the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus, and are found wild throughout the drier parts of Australia where the species has survived harsh inland conditions for the last five million years!