Arrived at Uriarra East carpark this morning and, as the pilots say, was socked in by fog. Immediately, the wailing cries of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos drew our attention
towards two casuarinas where some 20 of the birds were hopping from branch to branch and trading places with others in the adjacent tree, all seemingly anxious to be under way.
I thought of the word
zugunruhr as used by ornithologist, Gustav Kramer to describe pre-migratory restlessness observed among birds, and quoted by Bernd Heinrich in
Homeward, his book about animal migration. Albeit, these cockies probably weren’t migrating, unless you could say there was some altitudinal migration afoot. After about seven minutes, happy happenstance! The sun broke through and the flock rose immediately
and headed off down river.
John Layton
Holt.