Hello from Medowie

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triker1
triker1's picture
Hello from Medowie

Hi,

Just a quick hello from a new member. I've been interested in birds all my life, we always had aviaries with finches and parrots when i was a kid. Now days I prefer to see them in the wild rather than caged although we do have 2 hand raised cockatiels.

I live in Medowie NSW (just north of Newcastle) and our house backs on to a large area of uncleared bushland. Basically retired these days so spend a lot of my time sitting on the back verandah with a pair of binoculars watching the birds.

Had the pleasure of watching 4 yellow tail black cockatoos this morning. They were flying from the ground to the branches fighting with each other. Not sure what was going on, guess it must be close to breeding season and they were competing for a female.

Anyway enough of my waffle.

Love the site and the forum :)

John

triker1
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hmmm... noticed the introductions forum after I posted this. Sorry for putting it in the wrong place.

Owen1
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Hi and welcome Triker. I love Black Cockatoos but I don't see them as often as I used to. It seems that the breeding times for the birds has been all mixed up in the last year and I have seen lots of male Fairy Wrens in full breeding colours lately.

Cheers, Owen.

Woko
Woko's picture

Good one, Triker. Sounds like retirement heaven right there on your back verandah!
Although I have no data to go by (or Gobi as they say in northern China) I do wonder if the clearance of old dead Eucalypts for vineyards & olive groves has had an effect on their populations in SA. They (the cockatoos, not the vineyards or olive groves) need deep hollows in which to breed & the demise of dead Eucalypts would surely affect their breeding numbers.

Meave
Meave's picture

Hello and welcome - I have not long joined the forum too, and it is great to see so many pictures of birds not in our area, and get so much helpful comment about birds in general. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Meave

triker1
triker1's picture

I'd never seen black cocky's in the wild around here until about 20 years ago, since then there numbers have been steadily increasing. Not very often a day goes by now when I don't hear or see them, sometimes in very large flocks. In one flock a few years back there was well over 100 birds, the noise was incredible. It took 15 mins or so for them all to fly over.

Araminta
Araminta's picture

Hi there Tricker, and welcome!! Isn't it great to hear, you have flocks of over 100 BCs. Where I live in the Yarra Ranges (Victoria), farmers tell me, even 30 years ago they saw huge flocks following them ploughing their land. These days you can be happy seeing flocks of 15-20.Some years ago, I used to see flocks of 10 Gang Gangs fly over, haven't see many of those lately either. Sad story, isn't it?
Enjoy your time on the veranda, and talking to us on the forum. I'm waiting to hear more from you!

M-L

Woko
Woko's picture

Any ideas on the reason for the increase in yellow-tailed black cockatoo numbers, Triker? Are they displaced from somewhere else? Has the government released a swag of tree hollows for accommodation? Is there a yellow-tailed black cockatoo baby bonus scheme in your neck of the woods?

triker1
triker1's picture

My guess is they moved from somewhere else. I think most of the bushland in the Port Stephens area is regrowth so maybe the trees are getting old enough to provide food, shelter, nest sites etc. But it's only a guess, I could be way off track.

About the same time as the black cockatoos increased in numbers we also started seeing long billed corellas. All the bird books I had at that time showed them as rare and living in a few isolated pockets in Victoria and South Australia. They are now fairly common in the Hunter Valley.

There was also an increase in the number of white cockatoo, little corella and galah. I always assumed they had moved towards the coast because of drought conditions inland.

Araminta
Araminta's picture

I am most interested to find out, what happened to the "Gang Gang Cockatoos" ?? Last time I saw some, (only three!), was a year ago in my trees. I haven't heard any either! I'd love to find out where they are? Not near Gembrook. M-L

M-L

soakes
soakes's picture

I don't know about Gembrook, but in my area of Gippsland they usually show up in Summer. However, I saw a couple just a couple of weeks ago. Maybe they were lost, but they seemed happy.

- soakes

soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia

Owen1
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I saw Gang Gangs several times two years ago but they seemed to have disappeared and my only sighting in the past year was a couple in the Cathedral Ranges.

Cheers, Owen.

cathshane

We saw Gang Gangs in April this year when we were camping at Kevington, they would come just on dusk hang around for a short time and go again. Got a few shots but not very good because of poor light.

Araminta
Araminta's picture

Good to hear, there are some around. Most of the time they stay high up in the trees, but they are easy to identify by their sounds.I will keep looking for them. They don't come down to the ground often, but last year we had some come down to have a drink, before they left again.Never saw more than 6 birds together, but again the farmer told me , not that long ago, there were large flocks where I live. Sad!!!!

M-L

Qyn
Qyn's picture

Welcome Medowie.

The YTBC loved the Hakea salicifolia, Allocasuarina torulosa and Allocasuarina littoralis at my Emerald house but the Blackwood wattles (Acacia melanoxylon) would attract Gang-Gang cockatoos when the seed was close to dropping.

Since the oldest two wattles have died (split in the strong winds) and I'm not there at the moment, I don't know if they have come back - that was a few years ago anyway! These ones, too, only came in a small "family" group (only one obvious male and up to three others) and any sound they made was like a harsh creaking door - I never heard anything like the mp3 sound byte shown on this website.

Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."

Qyn
Qyn's picture

Sorry that should be "Hello, Triker and welcome." #^)

Alison
~~~~~~
"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."

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