It is January 2020. Sydney is full of smoke and full of birds. In an inner-city park, near a pond, corellas scratch the crispy grass looking for a feed. Ibis are ever present, but their number has multiplied. A tiny nature reserve only a few kms from the CBD is now home to magpies, currawongs, owls, pelicans and ravens. For the past month a friend has been sending daily photos of a previously uninhabited sandstone escarpment opposite her balcony where a flock of more than a hundred sulphur crested cockatoos has taken up residence.