Unusual behaviour witnessed yesterday in Clayton, SE of Melbourne was a
flock of Rainbow Lorikeets (~12 birds) following a Little Pied Cormorant
as it flew in circles above a small lake. Every now and then one or two
lorikeets would break away from the flock and fly at the cormorant,
approaching very closely and then return to the flock. Lots of lorikeet
squawking was going on of course. This went on for several minutes with
the cormorant circling higher and higher until the lorikeets gave up and
flew off. Soon after, the cormorant disappeared in the distance.
The day before, I was walking past a suburban (Melbourne) garden and
stopped at the sound of some flapping in a tree next to the foot path. A
Little Wattlebird was caught on something and was trying to get away.
Luckily there was no front fence to the property and I could reach
around the side of the tree to retrieve a big lump of wadding and
plastic string caught between two branches and attached to the bird's
right foot. The plastic and some of the wadding was inextricably tangled
around the foot and toes were sticking out at all angles. All I could do
was break the wadding as close to the foot as possible and let the bird
go. with its foot still tightly tied, but no extraneous material to
catch on anything. On closer inspection of the wadding and string, it
looked like the lining of a nest. I don't know if the bird will be able
to get rid of the last bits of string or even if it will survive. It
must surely have been in a lot of pain. Some rubbish must make good
nesting material, but unfortunately is often indestructible, or at least
not readily degradable.
Merrilyn
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