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  • 2 weeks later...

Fake snakes, bricks, sneakers: How Sydneysiders are fighting the cockatoo bin war

Bricks, fake snakes and Dunlop volleys have been enlisted by Sydneysiders in what scientists have dubbed an “arms race” between humans and cockatoos, the latter of which are teaching each other to ransack the city’s bins in a rapidly proliferating interspecies war of innovation

 

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Sulphur-crested cockatoos were first observed flipping open bin lids to raid the juicy spoils inside about 10 years ago, but the behaviour was limited to three suburbs around Stanwell Park. Barely two years later, flocks had picked up the trend across 44 suburbs.

“It’s been spreading to the Sutherland area, out to Campbelltown, and we get the occasional report from other parts of Sydney and down in the Illawarra,” said Dr John Martin, a senior ecologist at Ecosure Environmental Consultancy.

Now, the parrot piracy has hit the northern beaches.

“Clever cockies around Newport and Avalon shops have worked out how to open the waste bins to access the food scraps within,” the council warned on Thursday.

“Shop owners have had enough, using weights to stop the crafty birds raiding their rubbish and creating mess.”

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Cockatoos within one flock learn from each other and use the same method to flip open bins. A flock the suburb over might observe and adopt the practice but put their own spin on the technique – for example, prising a lid open with a foot rather than their beak.

Techniques to deter the cockatoos include weighing down the bin lids with bricks (easily dispatched), spooking the birds with plastic snakes (the fear factor doesn’t last), wedging sneakers or metal springs into the bin’s hinge (limited success), and locks that block cockatoos but allow the bin to open when tipped by a garbage truck (seems to work, but it’ll cost you).

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fake-snakes-bricks-sneakers-how-sydneysiders-are-fighting-the-cockatoo-bin-war-20240418-p5fkvs.html

 

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1 hour ago, lazarus said:

gettyimages-2147972586.webp

‘Magical’ moment as surfer shares wave with pod of dolphins as she wins first world championship tour event

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/21/sport/gabriela-bryan-dolphins-spt-intl/index.html

In a search for a high res shot of this I found this YT video of another similar encounter. I also saw numerous other pics of dolphins playing in the waves (link), so not as uncommon as one might imagine.

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1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

so not as uncommon as one might imagine...

It's their ocean, right..? 😉

I think the novelty here ("amazing") is it's from a final round at a recent WSL Championship tour event. Best competitive surfers in the world. (See min 2:30 in the vdo below.)

. . .

 

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39 minutes ago, lazarus said:

It's their ocean, right..? 😉

I think the novelty here ("amazing") is it's from a final round at a recent WSL Championship tour event. Best competitive surfers in the world. (See min 2:30 in the vdo below.)

. . .

In my many years of windsurfing I never experienced sailing with dolphins. I did on a couple of occasions spot sharks just below the surface.

What was incredible was night windsurfing when the sea bioluminescence was active. Couldn't find any windsurfing images, but plenty of surfing pics and video out there of amazing nature putting on a light show.

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1 minute ago, forcebwithu said:

In my many years of windsurfing I never experienced sailing with dolphins. I did on a couple of occasions spot sharks just below the surface...

I windsurfed for awhile. One of my local 'go to' spots was Half Moon Bay south of San Francisco. Friends who lived there (who knew fishermen) told me to watch out for sharks. Never saw one.

I saw dolphins gliding in waves with surfers in west Malibu, California. I used to stay at a house there overlooking the ocean. Beautiful part of the world.

. . .

Here's a Killer Whale and her calf that I photographed at Monterey Bay, California (2017).

. . .

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Screenshot 2024-05-05 082452.jpg

The Horsehead Nebula, imaged by the NIRCam instrument on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, featuring a portion of the "horse's mane" about 0.8 light-years wide. The ethereal clouds that appear blue at the bottom of the image are dominated by cold, molecular hydrogen. Red-colored wisps extending above the main nebula represent mainly atomic hydrogen gas. In this area, known as a photodissociation region, ultraviolet light from nearby young, massive stars creates a mostly neutral, warm area of gas and dust between the fully ionized gas above and the colder nebula below. As with many Webb images, distant galaxies are sprinkled in the background.

. . .

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2024/05/photos-of-the-week-may-day-campus-protests-snake-festival/678275/

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That's a lot to bark about... 🦭🦭🦭

. . .

More Than 1,000 Sea Lions Gathered at SF's Pier 39 This Week, the Largest Herd in Over a Decade

https://sfist.com/2024/05/04/more-than-1-000-sea-lions-gathered-at-sfs-pier-39-this-week-the-largest-herd-in-over-a-decade/

Officials say a record number of sea lions have gathered at San Francisco’s Pier 39, one of the city's most iconic tourist attractions (or tourist traps, depending on who you ask) this week.

Pier 39 harbormaster Sheila Chandor counted more than 1,000 sea lions there this week, per the Associated Press, the highest number in 15 years. Usually, there are about 300-400 sea lions in the winter, reaching up to 700 in the spring.

They’re reportedly flocking to the docks to feast on above-average populations of anchovies and herring before the onset of mating season next month.

"They are fueling up for the mating season,” Chandor told the AP. "It's spring. They are ready to rock and roll down in the Channel Islands, and we're a nice pit stop with some great seafood."

At the Channel Islands, nomadic male sea lions find families to mate with...

. . .

 

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3 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

 

Brilliant, I have seen a few examples of similar before.

Love how it whips the bread away from the larger fish until one small enough to eat comes along.

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