When I was nine years old I wanted to be an ornithologist.
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Michael Morcombe's Field Guide to Australian Birds was a favourite book of my childhood. I'd do book reports on birds for a primary school teacher and we bred budgies at home - all named after Australian cricketers.
So I was amazed when I was spotted a scaly-breasted lorikeet for the first time in my life, right here, in Mollymook.
A pair of these almost completely green-coloured parrots had perched on a tree in our backyard among a small flock of argumentative rainbow lorikeets.
I was on the deck and asked my girlfriend to bring out the work camera. I thought it was someone's pet, but they were far too big to be a budgerigar.
I managed to snap two photos before the the flock flew over neighbouring yards towards the Beachside golf course.
We immediately googled - no need to raid the bookshelf anymore. Parakeet, lorikeet, what was it?
Digging down we discovered it was the Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus or scaly-breasted lorikeet. The Australian Museum says the bird lives in lowland eucalypt forests and woodlands, and also well-treed urban areas.
It ranges from the tip of Cape York in Queensland through to Wollongong. I guess these guys were lost.
The are known to join rainbow lorikeet flocks when they feed on nectar and pollen from eucalypts, however, may be bullied when it comes to artificial food sources like the hanging seed tray in our tree.
It's the small find that makes a day, so I wonder what will I discover this weekend?
If you do photograph something unusual, send it to us to run as our pic of the week. Email sam.strong@fairfaxmedia.com.au.