Our walk by Tuggerah Lake
It was birds today that caught our attention and once our minds and eyes were observers
birds were everywhere. Seagulls, ibis, egrets, herons, black swans in the distance, pink galhs doves, corellas, cormorants, magpies, willy wag tails, fairy wrens , plovers, kookaburra and rainbow lorikeets, pelicans and unexpectedly we heard this noise in the banksia and there were lake visitors the Yellowtail Black Cockatoos a long way from home.
visitors
we heard them first
a contented gravelling sound
then spotted them
well camouflaged high in the old man Banksia
by Tuggerah Lake
their glossy wings
opening and closing on the air
as they shimmied from branch to branch –
made kind of eerie black fans
when a branch drooped
under their shuffling weight I caught
frowning feathers with their fold of gold
brownish seed pods in a clutch
of black talons
a jutting hooked beak
brutish in its crack and whirl
swirl of seed-scooping tongue
some say Yellowtail Black Cockatoos
are messagers of empowering strength
their sweep of air enlivening
and there was a moment
an air brush in our hearts
as we watched their hovering wingspan
gather in a gush of wild gold to heave away
against a vermillion streak of sunset
above the cobalt cut-out distant hills.
back to the high country
their mountain home
Some more photos of the birds on that one day.
They are not professional photos but they mean a lot to me.
Love the corellas and galahs feeding together.
We enjoyed the cormorants sitting on the jetty.
And the pelicans
Some names we are still checking
Magpies
Kookaburra
Plovers, Willy wagrtail and the Green Figbird
