Noisy black strippers chew our nuts!

This blog post title will have either pricked your interested or result in a comment about offensive racism.

Once again it’s that time of the year.  The nuts have ripened on one of the large native trees located on the front lawn.

The tree is abundant with leaves and ripe green nuts which have attracted a large flock of native Black Cockatoos.  They are raucous as they quickly start stripping the tree of it’s foliage.  Not only do they eat the nuts, but also break off minor branches leaving the tree looking almost naked.  All the stripped foliage leaves a mess on the ground for me to gather and dispose.

There’s nothing small or dainty about these guys.

And that’s a large and powerful beak.

Last autumn the foliage on the ground had to be racked and collected by hand otherwise it would cause the reel mower to stalls.  However our new rotary mower is far more brutal chomping it's way through the stuff. 

What’s most annoying is the birds only eat 2-5% of the nuts with the remainder discarded on the ground.  But then I suppose that’s what nature intended to happen.