http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o625Yi24Iq8
A mob of sulphur crested cockatoos (around 16) descended on our feeding station a few days ago, mostly to hangout, relax and stretch their wings rather than feed. The loan 'rainbow' never missed a bite. Did you notice the Wattle Bird fleeing? And keep an eye out for the near crash landing! Enjoy ad.
Watching your post of the recording of all those Cockatoos being fed in your garden makes me cry just watching . What can I say or do???? Education doesn’t work? Can I ask you to please have a look at the post “old cocky” , posted today? Can I ask you to please read about the “beak and feather disease”? How the terrible disease is spread, and how those sick birds will suffer. People with huge feeding stations make me suffer as much as sick birds do. Please, please reconsider, if you love birds. (this will no doubt get me into trouble again, so be it)
M-L
Araminta, not sure why you posted this THREE times—or why you posted at all when you never really comprehended the video.
It's to to have an axe to grind but check the facts first.
A few facts from my observation bases on mobs of these birds that can number around 100+. I have never seen a sick or diseased bird in one of them. We have mobs of around 50-100 sulphurs and galahs flying around morning and night. Feeding on spilt grain on the side of the road. Feeding at the local silo ALL year round, the noise from these birds is deafening that is how many therre are. (They die from road kill not sickness) We have one white that has suffered an INJURY as a very young bird he/she now flies as well as any normal bird and visits when he wants. Some times we may not see him for weeks...these birds in rural areas do not behave as they would in suburbia they ARE NOT dependant on our feeding them, they come when they WANT or when times are TOUGH. If you have a GOOD look at the video you will notice that these birds are acting in a social manner they are NOT really worried too much about the food. We have birds thay visit that do not even eat the food we put out eg the Sacred Kingfishers.
What you say may apply in confined city areas but as a bushies we know a bit more about the land and wildlife and have different conditions to city slickers.
We MAKE no effort to 'tame' any of these birds that visit us...we strive to keep the wary of people and not be dependant on people.
In the bush there is no such thing as 'city do good but have no idea' greenies...though years of obsevation, inheritance and experience we have a balanced aproach to all things natural. ad.
I wouldn't say I'm a greenie in the insulting way you put it. Although I'm proud to have cared for the environment for more than 50 years.
I posted this three times , because my PC had a few problems, sorry, it was not my intention to post more than once.
There is no point to say anything else , you seem to know everything about the Beak and Feather disease, but obviously don’t believe there is a problem. Sorry to hear, but for me this is the end of the discussion about this terrible viral infection and how it’s spread and how the infected birds suffer.
In any case, I would urge other people to get some more information about the disease, so they can come to their own conclusion, and make their own informed decisions. If that is the result of this, I’m quite happy.
(there was no need to react in an aggressive manner, I simply asked to get some information. Sorry if you felt offended or provoked by what I said)
M-L
A very good thing indeed.
When people feed wild creatures things they were never meant to injest there will be problems
Again a very good thing indeed...the average person needs to be made aware of this.
I was not offended just a little put off that you did not pay attention to what you saw and overreacted.
You looked at some thing (and saw something close to your heart) and made unrational statements...I merely tried to clarify your misunderstanding and misinterperation of what you saw. The video of the SCC is an event that happens maybe ONCE or TWICE a year...hence my reason for highlighting the event. Have another look at the video in question, indeed have a look at all of the videos that way you may note that the birds come to our backyard mainly for the grapes, the protection it provides and water not the bit of grain or apple that we now provide...remember that in this area, unlike suburbia, we have had 12 years of drought followed by 2 years of flood and that things have been tough for our feather friends. With 50 years of geen experience I'm sure you can understand.
I wish you well with your efforts to educate the masses of the B&F problems and to feed BYB in a responsible manner.
(This may be a problem of this BB, it has no member info). Just ask that you think a little more before hitting the comment button don't think too much of yourself...MAYBE the individual has more experience than you and is even older than you...or is just PLAIN STUPID. ad.
Hi aussiedavid. Like you, I live in the bush & can attest to the attraction for birds of grain spillage at silos, in our case little corellas at the Strathalbyn silos. As far as I can see, there has been no detriment to their health.
However, I share Araminta's concern about artificial feeding of birds, even in the bush, where disease & dependence can be detrimenal to birds. In fact, I have witnessed horribly diseased sulphur-crested cockatoos & Australian magpies at a feeding station in a bush town. You might like to check out the various postings on this topic by using the search box near the top of this page for a variety of perspectives on this issue.
Hi Woko, Thank you for your input. ad.
For Araminta, had I known you were an ex-nurse and had a life time experiencing contagious disease I would have known were you were coming from. Had you known the agonising and research we have done making a decision to feed or not to feed you most likely would not have condemned me.
It’s a problem with this boards setup that some of the basic search functions are turned off as is personal messaging (some one please tell me if I’m wrong) compounded by a pathetically slow speed (due to bandwidth perhaps?) makes it very had to find info and know one another.
About the 'OLD Cocky' from the photo provided would not say +vely it is B&F as the beak looks normal, feather look suspect...will be interesting to get a report when the vets examine it.
ad.
I'm very sorry to say, you must have missed what Diane said about the beak of "OLD Cocky", You might want to go back and read it again?
Diane said :
Today I saw him, his beak is all bent and twisted and he only has one feather on his head, but he seemed to be eating OK don't know how
(this is the end of this discussion for me)
M-L
Hi aussiedavid, if you go to your profile (click on your name toward the top right side),The personal message is right at the bottom. It appears when you click on it that you are sending yourself a message. Delete you own user name, and type in the user you want to PM. If there is more than one, then separate usernames with a comma. An email will be sent to the user(s) indicating that they have a PM, and provide a link to access it. Obviously you need to login in to retrieve the message.
It is a little complicated, and may be it could be easier, but it certainly is there, and "not turned off". Hope this helps.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Thanks for that Dale indeed very complicated. The norm is a PM button & I'm sure it here just not enabled. (have look at the post I will be adding to the original one shortly.) ad
I did read it & looked at the photo have a look any twisting visible??
Appology to Di for cropping her image. ad
I have to agree with you, the beak looks quite normal, but the feathers and the way the bird looks strongly indicated Beak& Feather disease to me. If they can ever catch the clearly sick bird , we shall find out?
M-L
M-L as I said earlier,
"About the 'OLD Cocky' from the photo provided would not say +vely it is B&F as the beak looks normal, feather look suspect...will be interesting to get a report when the vets examine it."
It is skinnier than birds out here BUT they do moult & look "rather naked, strange, what ever..
so I agree. I hope they catch it & find out if it is sick. It could be we are on the same page?? ad
That would be nice
M-L
I have found a module to install which will make this feature more obvious (the CMS used for this website uses a series of modules that are installed) - its just doing some weird things when it is activated that we have to sort through before I enable it.
re the speed of the site - the BIBY website is pretty enormous and full of photos etc which means that when there are a lot of users on the site can slow down, I can only apologise for that.
Holly
Thanks Holly. Being 'regional' speed is always a problem slowly it is getting better. A few years ago if you lived 15-20 ks out of a town you were lucky to use the internet. Now it is just OK, in town you take what you get...but on a brighter note note the gov says we will have speeds equal to or marginally better than city copper wire when (and if) the NBN ever gets out here.
As you say users make a difference it takes 10-20 secs, some times 30 secs to load a page on this forum about twice the time of most sites so it makes one reluctant to do too much searching unless you really need to or have the time. ad.