Another bowl down

[skyring]

Spotted a whole bunch of black cockatoos flying around this morning. Three flew right over the house and we were able to get a good view. In other news a trio of the white, sulphur-crested, variety came along and assaulted my bird feeder. Bloody things. I love them to pieces, but they are larrikins and when one discovered that it couldn't easily get down to the seed, not without spilling out most of it first (which of course it did) it lifted the whole thing off its hook and dropped it. Smash onto the bricks below. That's the second time the terracotta bowl has been broken. I used to have a "security chain" made out of an old bootlace, but that got chewed through long ago.

Yesterday I had free time, the car and a fine clear sunny day. I raced around releasing books at some of Canberra's prime locations, taking photographs for my journal entries to rubyjules' Bookcrossing Journal. Great fun and I got some excellent shots.

Priior to that I froze off my fingers at the YMCA Garage Sale out at Yarralumla. I used to get some great bargains there, but nowadays the stock gets picked over pretty thoroughly before ever I get to it. Still, I got a box of books, mostly for release, but enough for resale to make a profit on the deal. Before I attend the next one I'll have to buy some gloves that are thick enough to be useful but thin enough that I can leaf through books.

I've started up another blog, this one for my technonerdly stuff.

We've turned the corner on winter, I can feel it. The days are getting warmer (well, OK, it was only 12 degrees above freezing today, but I'm talking about normal days, alright?), and the days are getting longer. Not by much, but the rate is starting to accelerate.

Comments

[jfroebe.livejournal.com]

looking forward to the techno blog entries

BLACK cockatoos?

[shendoah.livejournal.com]

My understanding is Black Cockatoos were fairly rare. Is that true? How nifty to have cockatoos flying wild in your yard. I just get bloody pigeons. Actually since the pair of falcons moved in, I'm literally getting bloody pigeons in my yard. Go Falcons!

Re: BLACK cockatoos?

[skyring.livejournal.com]

Hi, Shen!

I loved being able to tag along on your holiday. It sounded fantastic, particularly so as I've recently been reading a couple of books on Irish travel, namely Round Ireland With a Fridge and McCarthy's Bar, two excellent and funny books.

We always have gangs of hooligan sulphur crested white cockatoos around, and they whoop and swoop and frolic through solemn outdoor ceremonies. strip rubber off street lamps and destroy my bird feeder. They have such a rollicking good time it's hard to feel angry towards them.

The black cockatoos are equally large birds, but they are a more restrained, dignified creature, perhaps a function of their sober black suit. They flap sedately from place to place in small groups of two to six, conversing with each other as they go in a creaking sort of voice.

They are not common, but we see them in winter, especially since the devastating January 2003 fires in the surrounding bushland, when they come down from the mountains for the easy living in town. I haven't had any attend my bird feeder yet, but it would be a grand event if they did.

It used to be that way for the white cockatoos, but they are here on a permanent basis now, and it is not unusual to see flocks of several dozen of these great birds feeding together on ovals or road verges. I have a cedar tree in my front yard and every now and then a handful will sit in the branches and demolish the cones, sending a steady whispering rain of cone "flakes" down through the needles.

These birds and the other parrots give me a great deal of pleasure.