Birds in the Cove
North Arm Cove sounds like an aviary at the moment. The gums are still in flower and all sorts of birds are feeding and nesting.
I heard the channel-billed cuckoo for the first time this spring on 17 September. The Eastern koel has also arrived.The minor birds are busy chasing these larger birds wherever they go, mainly as they are cuckoos who lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.
The local plover was fussing in the middle of the night on Friday, so I hope his sole surviving chick is OK. There is another pair of nesting plovers just north of the new village green and nesting magpies east of the village green.
There is currently a flock of about 20 galahs plus at least half a dozen corellas. We also have a local eastern rosella who has a mate with a yellow head instead of red and red cheeks. The pair have been around for at least a year but they are very timid and I have not been able to get a photo.
There are not many water birds at the moment-I guess that they are all off nesting.
With all the dry weather, our bird bath is proving very popular, allowing me to get some good photos. I have a wonderful app on my phone which allows me to identify the birds whilst I am out and about. A particularly good feature is the the bird call section for when you can't get a good look. So if you are going for a walk, it is great time to be out and enjoying the magic of the Cove.
However there is one problem in the bird paradise. Last night the channel-billed cuckoo was making a huge fuss about 3am. The night before it was the plover. A few weeks ago all the corellas took to flight at about 10pm. Perhaps a goanna is causing all this disturbance but a more likely culprit is a cat. Please keep your cats indoors at night, desex them and ring the council if you have a local feral cat. It is bird nesting time and we want another generation of birds to share the Cove with us next year.
