More news from Inner South Canberra. Yesterday Sandra Henderson reported Silver Gulls nesting in the open forecourt space in front of the national parliament. This was the scene early this morning (about 0730) with about a hundred of them in the plantings of prostrate grevillea, egg-sitting, site-selecting, squabbling and copulating. In recent years large numbers have nested on an island in Lake Burley Griffin, and smaller numbers on moored boats. This event belongs under the heading ‘Effect of Covid-19 on birds’ because the gulls are at the parliament because of the absence of tourists. The grevillea beds are not on an island but are accessible by walkways, which in an ordinary year would be crowded by visitors photographing one another, themselves and anything else in sight. Probably not all that many at 0730 though.
