In the morning, after shutting the gate (to keep the chooks in), I turned around to see a handsome king parrot land in a shaft of weak eastern sunlight on one of the bare boughs of our pear tree. He chirruped softly and I chirruped back. He cocked a curious head down at me. I begged him to wait and raced inside for my phone.
Crap.
His back and tail are a rich, British racing green… not black. And his face has character and curiosity… not blurry fuzz.
Later, resting on my bed, I glanced out the window to see two magpies on the power lines. They had their backs to me and were singing earnestly, their wings slightly akimbo, their chins up, in full and ecstatic harmony. When they came to a pause, one sidled carefully along the wire closer to the other. I could see the claws grip and regrip. But I didn’t reach for my phone. It was too distant a shot and I knew the flyscreen would get in the way. Huddled closer together, they burst into a new round of song.
And then, a poem later, a screech made me look up and there on the same power lines was a cockatoo – white as lightning in a burst of sun, yellow crest undulating fiercely as throatsome violence issued from its beak.
I must find my little camera. It’s still not a top notch thing but it will do better than my phone. I don’t want to be a wonderful photographer like some bloggers… but just to be able to capture some of the joy.
In consolation, here are a couple of photos i was happier with.
Out of the Cave 
Yes do get your camera. Birds never cooperate anyway 😂
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🤣
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I tried to get a photo of the bloody cockatoos this morning to go with my gardening poem, but my phone camera just wouldn’t focus, and then they flew away. “throatsome violence” is so apt!
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Yes!! So many missed photographic opportunities! THanks. 🙂 They do sound like they’re swearing blue murder.
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They do, don’t they!!! Like every word is an obscenity in another language!
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Great post. Mother Nature doesn’t do pause or rewind does she! 😊
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Never. 😊
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I hate when that happens, (so I’m always thrilled when I do get a good one) however nature waits for no one. I enjoyed the photos.
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Thanks. 😊. I just had to write about all those birds showing off for me. They were so beautiful.
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You’re welcome. 😊
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Lovely photos. The best camera is the one you have with you. Birds and insects are the hardest to capture.
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Wise words!! Love that comment.
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Loved the photos, camera or not!
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Thanks! 🙂
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wonderful photos and wonderful descriptions, Worms: the one on the white cockatoo borders on the ecstatic: what a way to start the day 🙂
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Thanks, John!! 🙂. It felt like a gift.
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btw I love the clever, comic caption 🙂
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😊
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Birds never do cooperate but if you can keep a little camera handy it will do a better job than a phone.
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I am sure you’re right. 🙂
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The birds, yeah yeah, fabulous. Nature and all that. 🙂
But this post! The writing! Your turns of phrase…fabulous. Real skill – I only wish I could write half as good as you.
Well done xx
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Thanks, Linda. Your writing is great! And you do stuff with it. I am so damn lazy. Well, I feel I have an excuse at the moment. But it is true that generally speaking I am either lazy or talk myself out of stuff.
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I’m lazy, too, and don’t have your excuse! 🙂
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