I received a great welcome home from
hospital this morning. I walked out onto my back verandah as soon as I arrived
home at Winmalee (80km west of Sydney) and could hear the squeaky calls of a fledgling Glossy
Black-Cockatoo. It was a male and was slowly climbing a dead branch of a Grey
Gum in my next door neighbour’s backyard, while its parents were quietly roosting
in an Angophora costata nearby. The fledgling’s head and back were sooty
brown and it had red and black barring under the tail. It flew up to its male
parent and continued its soft begging calls. Large numbers of Noisy Miners in
the area were calling loudly and harassing Rainbow Lorikeets but fortunately ignored
the Glossies.
Neil Kirby
Winmalee (80km west of Sydney)