The highlight of my yesterday was a west to east low flyover by a large flock of Yellowed-tailed Black Cockatoo (YBC). I counted 43, then a straggler - plus a few at the beginning that I missed, so I'd say around 50 birds. They do form flocks of up to a hundred in the non-breeding season and follow the food time line across the south-east of Australia. travelling as far north up the east coast as central Queensland and throughout South Australia. The population on the Eyre Peninsula is listed as critically endangered due to habitat loss and isolation from other groups and as 'vulnerable' throughout SA. The low flight, slow wing beat and seemingly prehistoric voices of these, Australia's largest, cockatoos still fills me with delight and wonder - as does watching them feed and squabble in the banksias just a few metres away ( although they didn't stop here last winter - perhaps they know how long food stocks take to recover). It was April 2015 the last time a flock visited the paddock next door - there's obviously some type of grass or plant that goes to seed then. The flock was around again today, a little later, and it would be wonderful to them back in the trees here around August. While these birds- in particular their eggs - have a few natural predators, (possums, for example. raid nests, especially in Tasmania), it is land clearing with the resulting loss of food, nesting sites and habitat that has led to the rapid decline in numbers of these magnificent birds.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2020
|