The last few afternoons I've been watching a great spectacle on the walk
along the clifftop from Gordon Falls to Tarpeian Rock at Leura in the Blue
Mountains. Each day at sunset, what must be Leura's entire population of
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos start to appear from over the top of the cliffs
and with much screeching and an audible whoosh, plunge down into the valley
below where they roost in huge old Blue Gums. I'm sure they gather as much
speed as they can just for fun - they tilt this way and that and sometimes
almost turn somersaults as they go. I reckon it takes each bird about 30
seconds to travel from the top of the cliffs to a point almost a kilometre
away and several hundred vertical metres down - which puts their speed at
about 120 km per hour (a very rough estimate). There are at least 150 of
them fly down to that roost.
Twenty years ago when I first moved to the mountains, I used to regularly
see a single Sulphur-crested Cockatoo whenever I travelled through the
township of Bullaburra. Apart from that they were very rarely seen. Their
increase since then has been phenomenal.
Carol
Carol Probets
Katoomba
Blue Mountains NSW
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