merry merry king

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra
Gay your life must be

Threskiornis aethiopicus redux

bird on a wire

(well, you come up with something cleverer)

Centennial Park

Near my home is Centennial Park, "a 189-hectare grand park in the Victorian period tradition featuring formal gardens, ponds, grand avenues, statues, historic buildings and sporting fields", so they say.





I go there and walk about, or sit in the cafe.





But when you come to visit, you might like to ride horses, or cycle.





Or walk your dog.





Several years ago, I met a friend for weekly walks through that Spring. We found a clutch of five cygnets with their parents, and on every walk after that we looked for them and watched their progress. One day, having not been for a while, there was no sign of five fluffy birds. We were sad. Then we spied a group of seven swans, and realised five of them were smaller than the other two. Our cygnets had fledged, and were now rambuctuous teenagers.





Meeting anyone who regularly used the Park during that time, I realised we all watched over that family group, somehow heartened that all of the babies survived the cold and the predators and grew up under our eyes.





They all only had one head, though.

two heads better

Here we are in sylvan Pennsylvania.





Here we are back in Centennial Park in Sydney.

So you see, my friends, they follow me across the globe.

I wonder ...

If there were no birds, would we have learned to fly?

back from Melbourne, off to Adelaide

Look, the branch is in focus, what more do you want. Birdies are hard to shoot 'cause they hop around. Not like flars, which just sit there.

duck!

Latte art by Michaelangelo Optica, photography by Cissy Strutt. Caffe Sofia, Erskineville, Sydney, 3:39pm, 10th January 2008.

And today I'm in Melbourne. It is 40 degrees. That's 104F folks. Believe me when I say I'm hot.

Cygnus atratus

2008 is going rather well so far, don't you think?

Trichoglossus haematodus

... and that's all I have to say.

for mike, because he asked

Mmmmmmm....



Ahhhhhhh....



ooooh oh oh ....



Ah! Ah! Ah!



uh uh


waaaargggleeeeboyyyyeeezshhhhhhaaaayyyyyyy ...... uh

duck's arse

Ah Melbourne, where it rains on you even when the sun is shining. And then a duck shows you her arse. Sigh. Still, I hope you are enjoying your new home, Anaglyph.

Threskiornis aethiopicus

The Sacred Ibis is one of my favourite birds. Here is a tree full of them in a park in Townsville. These birds are a couple of feet tall. They stalk around Sydney, too, looking disreputable & disheveled, ignoring people & raiding rubbish bins. They have a wonderful long strong beak. They perch on the rim of the bin, and they grab rubbish & fling it all about in search of goodies.

One day I was walking through Hyde Park. An odd rustle/crackling sound caught my attention, and, looking around for the source, I saw a Sacred Ibis who had somehow got hold of an unopened packet of Twisties. He'd been going at the packet, shaking & rattling it, but the delicious extruded snack stubbornly refused to appear. Without thinking, I approached the bird, holding out my hand and saying "Oh, give me that". The Ibis dropped the packet and backed away a few steps, eyeing me intently. I opened the bag, put it back on the ground, and stepped away. Without a word of thanks, he dived in to grab the crunchy, golden treats and gobble them up.

Manorina melanocephala

This native honeyeater is commonly called a Noisy Miner. Its call is "a loud 'pwee pwee pwee' and a piping 'pee pee pee' when alarmed" according to the Australian Museum's Bird Finder Fact Sheet. I shot this bird in a flowering gum growing in the grounds of the Museum. I once cleaned an oily penguin in the basement. My father worked there. He was a marine biologist.

Cacatua galerita

There is a flock of wild sulphur-crested cockatoos living the high life in my urban neighbourhood. Like many native Australian birds they are flashy, raucous, opportunistic, marvelous. Their black currant eyes shine with tenderness and calculation. My friend Kate drew a cartoon of me as a cockatoo for my 30th birthday, long ago. I think they are my dreaming animal.