Hello there!
These are regular and welcome visitors in the early months of each year, from mid/late Summer through to early Autumn. Their quiet conversational calls are a delight, nothing at all like the raucous calls of so many other cockatoos, including the Sulphur Cresteds which also visit here.
This year the local YTBC flock numbers somewhere between 22 (confirmed) and possibly as high as 30.
Among their favourite foods around here are the seeds of the (weedy) Pinus radiata, which they get to by tearing the cones apart. The results, dropped to the ground, provide wonderful "firelighters" for the wood stove during winter. Thankfully the Radiata Pines are NOT among the weeds I have to contend with on my patch, though there are many close by.
The distictively different, still-green seedpods of two Hakeas on this block, H. carinata and H. vittata provide prized food for a few weeks.
Hakea vittata seedpod and foliage:
I am told that the Hakeas on this block are all about the same age, fully mature and about 20 years old. A fire all those years ago prompted their germination, but now many have died and more are dying and so I need to continue the replanting which was begun by the previous owners.
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