Alex has provided a very interesting map and his black line of flight provides a bit of a new insight – to me at least - into the cockatoos. Quite a few years ago when working for CSIRO “Wildlife” I was doing field work for potential firewood sources and on one of the properties where I was working I came across some excellent and quite extensive stands of Allocasuarina littoralis, the Black-She-oak, on the ridge tops not far from the Murrumbateman – Dicks Creek roads shown on the map. This is NOT Allocasuarina verticillata, the Drooping She-oak, that the birds feed on on Mounts Ainslie and Majura and in parts of Namadgi National Park. I asked the property owner if he had ever seen “Black Cockatoos” in the area and the reply was yes, some with yellow tails and some with red tails. I checked the area out thoroughly and found numerous examples of the characteristically chewed cones under the trees. There are possibly other stands of Black She-oak on properties in the area that I did not visit.
I think most people associate the birds we see on Mts Ainslie and Majura and sometimes around Fitz’s Hill (spelling?) in Namadgi as coming from the ranges east of places like Michelago. Quite possibly they do but I would now be inclined to think that there is possibly a distinct population that wanders over suitable remnant habitat on the Southern Tablelands and maybe they may even be part of the population listed as endangered (I think) from the Riverina/Dubbo area that is known to wander widely.
Mark
From: [
Sent: Monday, 26 August 2013 12:08 PM
To:
Subject: FW: Re: [canberrabirds] Glossy blacks [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]
Hi all,
Follow up here since I agree with Phillip. They came from where the Mundoonen Range crosses the Hume Hwy ~20 km Sydney side of Yass. Birds were heading towards North Canberra following a path roughly parallel to the Barton Hwy. We were able to watch them for 10-20 km from our vantage point (very rough, very generalised line on map attached) they weren't high up (we were looking down on them), but didn't change direction at all either. Yes long shot they get to Majura.....there probably is but I am unaware of stands of suitable feed for Glossies in between. On my place I have the odd individual Allocasuarina littoralis or Black She-Oak (I think they are) but no stands. I have seen higher densities of She-oaks whilst commuting along the Hume Hwy from the Lade Vale Rd intersection to Yass. And from memory another nice patch on a hill top off Lade Vale Rd before it hits Gundaroo Rd.
Also another non-bird related happening, the ‘rat’ that entered my place during the week is a Yellow-footed Antechinus! I thought it wasn’t at first so put traps out…..bluddy tough critters – heard the trap go off last night and was lucky enough that its neck wasn’t broken so I released it straight away. Now what do I do? Anyone got any non-lethal traps that I could borrow so I can re-locate it somewhere else on the place? And is that legal? Not that I really care, to me its morally right since I haven’t heard of the Yellow-foots being over-populated and/or causing environmental degradation anywhere?
Regards,
Alex.
That is very vague. flock heading south prob came from .......... she-oaks
from the Hume up there........ So where is this (up there)?
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Alex McLachlan [mailto:m("y7mail.com","asuperciliosa");" target="_blank">]
Sent: Saturday, 24 August 2013 4:29 PM
To: m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" target="_blank">
Subject: [canberrabirds] Glossy blacks
And olive legless lizards :-) Been wondering when some glossies would fly
over 8 in a flock heading south prob came from NE end of mundoonen range.
I've seen plenty of she-oaks from the Hume up there. Next in line might be
mt Majura?
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