On a picturesque Sunday evening, 8 keen birdwatchers assisted with the Rainbow Lorikeet Roost count. They were very successful observing over 50 birds, with a large number of those, roosting on Campus.

The Lorikeets are quite tricky to spot when roosting. As a defence mechanism, they fly around making a lot of noise just before dusk. They then fly into a tree near where they roost and stay quiet until they think it is safe for them to fly into their own roost for the night.

The students watched them and to tried to count how many flew into the roost. Not an easy task as they are small birds that can fly very fast. The students did an excellent job spotting 18 roosting!

Thank you to Sue Harper, a parent volunteer and long time environmentalist/photographer, for sharing these great images with us! The organisers of the Australia wide event loved the pictorial evidence of Lorikeets roosting at Aquinas.

In the coming weeks, we will be counting the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo’s. Please contact paul.rich@aquinas.wa.edu.au if you would like to come along as a parent helper.