Black cockatoos are proving to be a real pest for farmers/orchardists. FT
Bridgetown man fined over illegal cockatoo shooting-
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I'll do that again.....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/30/2478537.htm
A $3,000 fine IMO is not much of a deterent for this horrible act. The guy probably thinks it works out cheaper for him to shoot the birds than erect netting.
Pamela
Central Coast NSW
Oh how horrible to hear about such callous treatment of these beautiful creatures. Today i was running around my workplace where black cockies have been seen a lot lately ( not the rare ones I am guessing ) and following them to where they settled in some pine trees. I'm glad I read the article on the ABC posting as I saw one with a large pinecone in its mouth and I was wondering if they had a liking for them or of they were just playing.
Recently, while in NZ I had a heated debate with my brother who loves shooting and he was telling me that local farmers invite shooters in to kill the Masked lapwing plovers . He tried to excuse it by saying that they chase out the local birdlife, but I wasn't buying that. probably more to do with disturbing the ducks from their dams that they treasure for the duck shooting season.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
It's not the poor cockatoos fault that humans have cleared all their habitat and replaced it with a smorgasboard. Shooting these gorgeous birds should carry the same penalty as smuggling, cause most of these attempts end up with the same result,(dead birds)
Birdie asked: "as I saw one with a large pinecone in its mouth and I was wondering if they had a liking for them or of they were just playing."
They certainly do, Birdie.
.
In fact, in some areas where Pines were heavily planted, the Yellow-tailed Black Cockies are actually helping spread these trees as weeds. 30 metre high weeds, in fact. Its not the Cockies' fault. They seem to be about the only birds or animals in Australia capable of dealing with pine cones.
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See my blog posting on this topic
http://peonyden.blogspot.com/2007/04/black-cockatoos-shred-pine-cones.html
.
You've got to love those big, but sometimes noisy birds.
Hate to think of the Western Australian ones being shot, as some are very rare.
Cheers
Denis
Denis Wilson
www.peonyden.blogspot.com
Hi Denis
I thought you owould be able to provide an answer for that, thankyou. They really are awesome closeup, and for that I am thankful that the stand of pines is only young as opposed to the gums around my workplace. While looking on your website I saw the tree fern pics, thought you might like to see some of minr taken in NZ recently. The symmetry is really beautiful
[ihttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3257/3247971773_e8949f9bd9.jpg?v=0mg][/img]
Sunshine Coast Queensland
oops...
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Hi Birdie
At the risk of getting "off topic", loved your Tree Fern photos.Its great getting a changed perspective of them, like that. As you can see, that is one of my favourite ways of viewing them, too.
Glad other people like that perspective too.
Cheers
Denis
Denis Wilson
www.peonyden.blogspot.com
Yeah, that is a good perspective, and one that I don't see that very often. Many of the tree ferns around my place are over 6m in height!
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Hi Guy's I too feel the tragedy of loosing some of our black cockies we have the yellow tailed here in Coffs and yes they love the pine cones Great fern pics birdie
Helen
Helen Soakes , I have to confess to having a little help to take that picture. I was in NZ and showing my daughter and her friend the view from a scenic lookout at the Arataki visitor centre in the Waitakere ranges west of Auckland. They had a platform that afforded an amazingn aerial view of the native bush and I even saw birds in the canopy that are almost impossible to spor when on the ground. It was an incredibly misty day and I was disappointed at the lack of photo opportunity so I just took what I could. Here you can see the conditions and the only bird I managed a good photo of was this amazing chook at my friends house whose 12 legs turned out to be offspring hiding from the rain!
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Whilst fining people is needed, perhaps Government subsidizing of netting might encourage the uptake of netting and help reduce the amount of Cockatoo's killed?
I didn't know if whether to start another topic or to just add any interesting news that catches my attention. Interesting news today.
Finch hair colour affects mating outcome
Friday, 20 March 2009
Dani Cooper
ABC
Source - http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/03/20/2521475.htm?site=science&topic=latest
The hair colour of the male appears to dictate the sex of the offspring when it comes to Gouldian Finches (Source: Dr Sarah Pryke)