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Birds playing in wind at the neck

Bruny Island

You quite often see birds will use the wind running over the sand dune at the neck. And they’ve got to be playing.

So you get particularly the Pacific Gulls and the New Zealand Kelp Gulls, if you’re getting a strong westerly or south-westerly wind, the wind will come across the water and will laminate across the top of the dune at the neck, and so when that wind is blowing, the gulls will sort of go upstream, as it were, not with a lot of effort – they know how to use the wind, obviously, but then they’ll turn, and they’ll come down-wind, low to the water, and up over the dune. And do that for hours.

We saw a pair of Yellow-Tailed black cockatoos doing that the other day, and I’ve never seen them do things like that before. You know, open your eyes and you’ll see that this is just an amazing place.

Pacific gull Kim Murray — Birds such as the Pacific Gull are frequently seen playing in the wind at the Neck. Image: Pacific Gull by Kim Murray

Open your eyes and you’ll see that this is just an amazing place.

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos in the wind — Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos in the wind. Image: Phill Pullinger

Bob Graham

Bob Graham is a professional geographer and convenor of the Bruny Island Environment Network

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You quite often see birds will use the wind running over the sand dune at the neck. And they’ve got to be playing.

So you get particularly the Pacific Gulls and the New Zealand Kelp Gulls, if you’re getting a strong westerly or south-westerly wind, the wind will come across the water and will laminate across the top of the dune at the neck, and so when that wind is blowing, the gulls will sort of go upstream, as it were, not with a lot of effort – they know how to use the wind, obviously, but then they’ll turn, and they’ll come down-wind, low to the water, and up over the dune. And do that for hours.

We saw a pair of Yellow-Tailed black cockatoos doing that the other day, and I’ve never seen them do things like that before. You know, open your eyes and you’ll see that this is just an amazing place.

Pacific gull Kim Murray — Birds such as the Pacific Gull are frequently seen playing in the wind at the Neck. Image: Pacific Gull by Kim Murray

Open your eyes and you’ll see that this is just an amazing place.

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos in the wind — Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos in the wind. Image: Phill Pullinger

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