The Tammar wallabies are practically breaking down the fences to get to some moderately green feed in my garden.
Who can blame them?
The rainfall chart for 2015 does not look pretty – the total for my eastern Penneshaw block is 396.5 mL, that’s more than 21% less than the long-term average (503 mL from 1911 until official records for the town stopped in 1998; 541 mL since 2008 for my block).
Since 10 September, a mere 55 mL has fallen, 27.5 mL (exactly half) in one episode in early November.
Dust puffs up with each footstep, the ants are into everything in their thirst for water and the drooping she-oaks (Allocasuarina verticillata) that surround my house are dropping leaves in big piles.
The piles of casuarina leaves and cones are more than 20cm deep in places
The she-oak cones are the sole food of the Endangered Glossy Black-cockatoo (Calyptorynchus lathami halmaturinus). If young healthy trees are dropping leaves in December to protect their roots from drying out, will they survive to the end of summer?
And my dilemma is that they pose a fire hazard but I don’t want to stress the trees further by cleaning them up, just in case a fire comes my way.
Adult Glossy Black-cockatoo female feeding on sheoak cone. Photo: Mike Barth
It’s a landmark breeding season for the endangered South Australian Glossy Black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus), now found only on Kangaroo Island. For the first time in living memory a chick has been born and fledged on Dudley Peninsula, the ‘head’ of the island.
Glossy chick, 4 or 5 weeks old in eucalypt hollow on Dudley Peninsula. Photo: Mike Barth
The Dudley nest has been closely monitored for the past few months. Senior Ranger Anthony Maguire observed a large nestling at the hollow entrance ready to fledge last week, and parents and fledgling have now left the nesting area.
We have a fledged nestling on the Dudley after more than 20 years of recovery work.
The Glossy Black-cockatoo recovery program of Natural Resources Kangaroo Island, has had remarkable success since threat abatement measures began in 1995, when the number of individuals was estimated at 195. Those measures focused on restoring feeding trees (Drooping Sheoak, Allocasuarina verticillata) and habitat, and on protecting nesting trees (large hollow-bearing eucalypts).
Dudley Peninsula, which has been largely cleared for farming, has relatively few of large old eucalypts but substantial areas of sheoak have been planted there in the past 15 years.
As well as improving and protecting habitat, the program is keeping nest predators at bay – corrugated iron skirts around tree trucks to keep possums from nest hollows and insecticide strips to ward off feral honeybees.
A female glossy surveys the scene from an artificial nest. Photo: Mike Barth
However, the rate of nest failures is still high. Program manager Karleah Berris and project officer Mike Barth keep a close eye on the chicks and assess factors that may contribute to nest failures. They check all nests, both natural and artificial, and at some of them install motion activated cameras that record everything that comes near the nest.
Mike Barth checks a nestling. Photo: Karleah Berris
Mike Barth installs nest monitoring camera. Photo: Karleah Berris
The preliminary pictures are showing Little Corellas and Galahs interfering with nests and nestlings. Karleah and Mike are working to develop management actions to keep them out.
The 2014 annual Kangaroo Island Glossy Black census estimated the population at 350. This year’s census runs each afternoon of 25 September (Middle River area), 26 September (Stokes Bay area) and 27 September (American River and Penneshaw areas). If you’d like to join in to help monitor how well the population is recovering (and get a good look at these lovable birds), contact the Glossy Black-cockatoo recovery team to register. For those who’d like to help year round, the Friends of the Glossies group would welcome you.
And if you see glossy flocks over the next three weeks please also report them.
Kangaroo Island in writing 