ON THE WING
I always think I am among friends when I walk the Waterworks Reserve on cold, overcast autumnal and winter days.
The “friends” are flocks of sulphur-crested cockatoos making this beautiful location their home during the time of nature’s shutdown and a lack of food out in country areas where the cockies spend summer.
The cockies become incredibly tame in winter – probably because people feed them – and on my walks they surround me, perching on fences and low branches, calling to me with loud, raucous squawks as I go by.
They feed largely on the juicy roots of grass on the embankments holding the reserve’s twin reservoirs, and they casually waddle out of the way as I pass among them.
Some days I feel like Moses parting the Red Sea, with an ocean of cockatoos ahead of me. I counted about 130 on a recent walk.
I work from home and, without family around me during the day, I like to seek out company to feel a part of the vibrancy and fabric of daily life. If I’m not meeting former newspaper colleagues in the bars of the Salamanca strip, I seek the fellowship of the cockies, amused by their playfulness and mischievousness. Faint traces of brown feathers indicate there are many young birds among them and they seem intent on drawing attention – perhaps trying to attract mates. This autumn, young birds have taken to acrobatics on a powerline that crosses a section of the northernmost reservoir.
The cockies might give me a lift on cold, grey days but they are not so popular with all Hobartians. Numbers seem to be building each year and I often receive reports of them doing damage to fruit trees and property in suburban areas. The cockies seem to have a penchant for attacking wooden roofs and eaves.
It is not fully understood why they chew the wood of roofs but the most plausible theory is they need to keep their large beaks, a vital tool for everyday life, in trim. Chewing wood helps wear down the constantly growing keratin of the bills, so they don’t grow too long, and to keep them sharp. Another theory is they merely get bored.
Cockatoos are most destructive in spring and late summer. The spring offensive might be explained by parents excavating nests and confusing the wood of houses for trees. In late summer, young birds leave the nest and start exploring the world and practising life skills, which includes mastering the destructive wonders of the beak.
I don’t discount the theory the cockies might just be having a little fun, without realising they are behaving like vandals. They’re clowns after all, so they do have a sense of fun. And as highly intelligent animals, they need an outlet.