A NEW BIRD FOR MY WALK LIST

This morning I added a new bird to my walk list: Gang Gang Cockatoo!

I should say that this photo is not this morning's bird. I took this photo in Cooma some years ago. Gang Gangs can be surprisingly friendly to photographers, as long as the birds are busy feeding they don't worry about you. The Gang Gang brings my walk list total to 50 species. Which is not to say that I've ever seen 50 birds on a walk: that is my cumulative total of species for all walks. My best individual walk total is 24, which I achieved last spring. This morning I saw 20 species, which isn't bad for winter. (These are only short walks, designed to take 30 minutes.) As well as the usual suspects, this morning I saw Musk Lorikeets, which are not all that common in Kew East. Yesterday I saw Red-rumped Parrots, which are also unusual. The last new bird I added to my list was the Eastern Spinebill, which I had been missing from the streets around here. I used to see them regularly in the streets of Kew, but sadly, they are no longer present. I've visited the spots where I used to be able to rely on seeing a spinebill and alas! they are no longer here. I can see them if I go to the Burke Road Billabong when the correas are flowering, but I no longer see spinebills in the suburban streets around Kew. I do not know what has changed. There are still plenty of flowering plants. They are just another one of our small birds that are disappearing. It is most disconcerting. But today I am celebrating my sighting of Gang Gangs, not lamenting our loss of small birds. Although there is much to lament about Gang Gangs too. Gang Gangs are now officially listed as threatened. The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020 lists Gang Gangs as 'Vulnerable.' They were previously listed as being of 'Least Concern.' The damage was done in the 2019 bushfires, which it is thought destroyed 10% of the population. Fires also destroyed habitat. The total population of Gang Gangs is estimated to be 25,000 individuals. Not a very big number.

I've always loved these clowns of the bird world, and I've always thought it appropriate that they should be the avifaunal emblem for our national capital.