As the full moon continued to ascend over Lake Monger – and danced in and out of clouds – the sun had just set.
The pelican-sky image was captured within a few seconds of the previous post’s featured photo.
I looked left for the moon; the pelican was to our right.
Half an hour earlier, the sun was still above the horizon, albeit hiding behind clouds.
Lake Monger’s southern shore is rather less “natural” than are its others.
The others have been progressively restored and revegetated with more “appropriate” plants, but a deal of the southern shore is still edged with manicured lawn, and shaded by “inappropriate” trees like willows and palms.
The latter trees have recently “redecorated” some of the grassed area beneath them.
I do not know whether or not the palms’ continuing presence is doing any actual damage to the local ecosystem.
It is, however, now clearly evident that increasingly large, increasingly oft-present hordes of corellas are doing much damage.
Their urban presence and population explosions are not simply “the natural order of things”.
They are the consequences of our own species’ actions/mistakes.
Our own species now needs to deal with those consequences, rather than “look the other way”, squeamishly.
I hope that Homo sapiens – as represented by various levels of government – does not much longer make the mistake of continuing the current inaction in relation to corellas now laying waste to habitat in Lake Monger Reserve and other precious Perth places.
Inevitably, howls of the “don’t you dare do anything to those pretty birds!” kind will make life a short term “hell” for any “bureaucrats”/ “authorities”/ “politicians” who are brave enough to take action.
In the (only slightly) longer term, however, inaction will yield a whole lot more “hell” for a great many species, corella species included.
A much-repeated falsehood is that “Perth’s corella problem is entirely a matter of the “feral”/ eastern states species”.
Even ignoring questions of “interbreeding/hybrids”, the visual evidence makes it obvious that large flocks of “local” and “feral” corellas can both prove destructive.
The ongoing saga of “Brumbies in Australia’s high country” is an analogous case history of “too bloody difficult, politically”, evasion, ignorance, “kicking the can down the road”, sentimentality, intransigence, political opportunism, and – thanks to all of the aforementioned – an enormous amount of avoidable devastation.
End of rant…
Whilst this post’s pictured corella was just one of thousands then present within earshot and eyesight, the individuals below were each a statistically significant portion of their species’ modest presence on Christmas Day at Lake Monger.
The Australian white ibis and the Australian raven are Australian species – not imports, respectively, from Egypt and Europe.
Both are highly adaptable, intelligent.
Whilst some birds have been displaced by urbanisation, Australia’s “bin chickens” and “crows” have taken advantage of it.
When mutually present – as above – their behaviour suggests that “mutual tolerance, albeit grudgingly granted” has been adopted as the wisest policy.
The above photo and the two immediately below were all taken just before the “official” time for Perth’s 2023 Christmas sunset.
In reality, because there is a rise behind Lake Monger’s western side, the sun had already “disappeared” below the western horizon.
With darkness falling, we headed home, through West Leederville’s quirkily-Christmassy streets.
