It seems that our new pair is settling in, albeit with some teething problems. Bula finally brought in a prey item (already part-eaten, so I couldn’t identify) to the box. Diamond had just arrived before him and so I assumed he would hand over what was left of his prize…..but, no, Bula had other ideas. He left with the prey, returned and then left again. Diamond was clearly interested, if not a bit puzzled. He will have to get the message before incubation time, otherwise we’ll be in trouble.
The other event of note was a rather rude interruption of our new pair mid-courting by a dreaded sulphur-crested cockatoo. Bula’s reaction was to take off. I thought at first that he was chasing the cockatoo away, but to be honest, I think he might have been frightened off. It is known that the odd cockatoo ends up as peregrine dinner, but they are large birds and the smaller male would be unlikely to risk a tackle with those fearsome beaks and claws. What do you think?
One last comment. I’m not sure whether or not I’m dreaming, but I do occasionally see a male bird, without Bula’s rather obvious neck streaks, in the box and have even observed the very occasional rather desultory scraping in Beau’s favourite spots. However, I can’t be sure it’s him. I’ve noticed that even Bula has the ability to ‘hide’ his neck streaks. I even saw a female yesterday with very odd spots on her neck, but we have had wet weather and that also changes the birds’ appearances enormously. In respect of courting behaviour, however, I’m pretty certain that I’ve only seen Diamond and Bula.