A main purpose of this little excursion was to find some examples of the small and dwindling population of Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos around the Vic/SA border. In this I was completely unsuccessful. It seems that early Spring is the worst possible time, as the birds disperse to places where they are very hard to find. A local source who regularly monitors the occasional flocks around Casterton had not seen any for some weeks. There were reports such as ‘they are feeding on the Edenhope golf course’ which when followed up led to the news ‘oh yes, they were here about two years ago’. A helpful source was the Natural Resources Dept at Mount Gambier which put me in touch with the regional volunteer coordinator who indicated various roads and tracks where they had been found in their flocking stage - say April-July. If anyone wants to have a look for these chaps I would strongly recommend the below booklet. It gives information about where food trees can be found and the habits of the sub-species generally. Anyway I now know a lot more about them.
