A few large flocks

[Martin Butterfield <>]

One of my local correspondents has remarked on the pleasure of having 100+ Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos (YTBC) visit her property.  (They do have the disadvantage of trashing young eucalypts so their presence isn't universally welcome.)  We have had a flock of 20-30 hanging around for the past 2 weeks.  This causes me to recall that when we first moved to Canberra in 1983 people used to drive up to the Cotter Pub to see the flock of YTBC which hung out in the pines there.  A legacy of the bushfires is that it showed the mountain cockies there was grub out in the plain and some of them have stayed around.

I went for a walk around Weston Creek ponds yesterday and noted 

• 70 red-rumped Parrots on the banks (two flocks; one of 20 and another of 50)
  
• 66 Pink-eared Ducks on the SW pond (this seems to be their stronghold at the moment); and
  
• At least 3 Black-fronted Dotterels (they were fairly active so keeping track of what was where means this may be an undercount).
  

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/