2013 Great Cocky Count Volunteer Request

Every April, the Great Cocky Count (GCC) counts as many Carnaby’s Cockatoos as possible across WA on a single night. This year, the GCC is on Sunday 7 April. It’s a very easy survey, simply counting all cockatoos flying into their night-time roosting trees at a specific place. It only takes an hour, starting half an hour before sunset. Get more information and register as a volunteer at www.birdlife.org.au/carnabys/great-cocky-count.

Who knows you might be lucky enough to spot one of my study birds.

 

Pink L in Balga

A big thank you to K of Balga who yesterday kindly allowed me into her backyard for a better view of where Pink L was feeding on pine and even introduced me to her neighbour to access their backyard too.

K contacted me this evening with details of her own sightings of Pink L visiting her street this afternoon complete with photos. Fantastic.

Pink L (Photo by K)

Tracking update

Pink D and Z are still together. They travelled to the Forrestdale Lake area.

Pink T has been enjoying feasting on the pines at Hyde Park but today he visited Nedlands and Dalkeith with more than 50 friends.

I followed Pink L yesterday. She seems to like visiting primary schools after roosting twice at Glendale Primary School and resting during the heat of the day at Westminster Primary School. Maybe she knows the importance of a good education? She and her 8 'class mates' would like to object to the attention of the school bully ravens though.

Unfortunately Pink K's tracking device has stopped giving fixes. It would be great to get a sighting of her to make sure she is ok. From the little bit of movement data she gave us, the vicinity of Hollywood Hospital and also Hyde Park are probably the best chances of spotting her at the moment. If anyone can help look for her please do.

An afternoon with Pink D and Z

I followed Pink D and Pink Z this afternoon. They seem to be best buddies. We initially tracked them down to a backyard in Applecross where they were resting and trying to stay cool. They had found some dense shade by a swimming pool. Not a bad spot. I'd would have liked a dip in the  pool at the time as it was quite hot.

They flew off and we next found them feasting in a liquid amber tree. They continued to eat for over an hour before flying away to roost.

The tracking devices from the other birds indicated that two spent quite a bit of time near Hyde Park before roosting around Hollywood Hospital. The remaining pink tail is in the vicinity of Trigg.

Release at Perry Lakes

This evening we released the five study birds featured in my previous post. They were last seen flying off together to the ESE around 7pm after spending well over an hour sitting in the two trees they landed in after being released.  They flew off in the direction of calls from another flock in the distance.

Three roosted for the night in the vicinity of Hollywood Hospital, one closer to the Swan River and the last near Bold Park.

These birds are going to be followed intensively to see where they roost each night and to find out the size of the area around each roost they use for finding food.

With their pretty pink tails you can easily distinguish them from their wild flock mates. If you spot one please let me know.

Photo by Roger Groom

Photo by Roger Groom

Meet my new study birds

We fitted tracking devices to my next group of study birds at Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre today.

Here are portraits of each of my new study birds. You will see that they have all had their tail feathers coloured so they can be distinguished from their wild flock mates once released.

Pink D

Pink L

Pink K

Pink T

Pink Z

Spectacular flowering Marri

This year seems to be a particularly good one for flowering Marri trees (Corymbia calophylla). They are in full bloom in the hills at the moment. These are a few pics from Morangup this morning. Dryandra Rd in Morangup is a good place to go to see the rare pink flowering form.


The cockatoos are busy eating seeds from the green Marri nuts. I wonder if they think they are walking on a cloud with so much Marri blossom around them?