Noisy Australian Imports

Today's blip features some colourful immigrants who never fail to make an impression; our native Banks Peninsula cockatoo community.

Numbering up to 90 birds across northern Banks Peninsula, there's been a Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo population in the Kaituna and Prices Valley area for some time now, and many stories and theories have cropped up about how they got there.

It is believed that a population of these birds first appeared in the mid-1980s, with some thought to have been escaped domestic pets from the local area, others thought to have got here from releases on board trans-tasman ships as they entered local waters.

However they got here, they certainly seem to have made themselves at home. The topography and trees of Prices Valley in particular seems to suit the birds, the large kahikatea and totara in the valley floor giving the cockatoos plenty of similar vantage points and roosting opportunities that their homelands eucalyptus scrub would also provide.

It's been said that Cockatoos are like many Australians; brash and loud, cheeky and irreverant. They may not be true natives to the Peninsula (and there has been much debate about pest control when it comes to controlling their numbers) but somehow I find their presence quite welcome. Unless of course they're screetching their beaks off well before sunrise. It would seem some habits die hard for these imports.