"Who's been sleeping in my bed?"

On a walk this morning to photograph the Freckled Ducks on Lake Guthridge in Sale, I noticed a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo inspecting a likely looking nest-hole in a gum tree.

"Aren't I pretty? ...
That looks like a suitable nest-hole over my left shoulder"

He/she would go to the lower edge of the sizeable hole but quickly jump/fly back to hang onto the small branch just a metre away. Indeed, the hole looked eminently suitable.

"Just our size."

"What's this plugging up the hole?"

He/she flew over again but a squabble started out with lots of cockatoo "raucous screeching" Simpson & Day and a strange hissing, asthmatic growling which I realised was a Brushtail Possum. A careful look at the photos above will show the black fur [of the tail, I think] in the entrance. Can't be too deep a hole! At one stage the ears and face of the possum appeared.

Possession is nine tenths of the law.

Possum 1: Cockatoo 0

End result? The cockatoo flew away to look for another hole.

Magic. f8 and be there.

PS. Note that a brilliantly white bird is hard to expose!!