I have a beautiful gnarly old man banksia tree at the back of my yard. The dead banksias don’t come off easily, so they stay there. I have never gotten around to finding out if I need to cut them off, and just assumed like many Australian natives that fire is responsible for that job. For the last few weeks, so many of them have been on the ground, ripped apart, open pods (I have never noticed), debris everywhere. This hasn’t happened in the 5 years I’ve been here, and thought it must be the ring tail possums that run around at night. This morning I am sitting at the kitchen table much earlier than usual, the light slowly spilling into the yard when something caught my eye at the back fence. I thought it was a jogger along the back street, so looked to see it pass by the cubby house that interrupts the view to back street….. nothing pass by the cubby house. In the old man banks though……. Wow….2 Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos having a grand time pruning the dead banksias. It’s isn’t fire needed to help the trees shed, it’s these 2 magnificent gardeners. Glimmer