Glorious Wattle Trees

At the end of winter, there's a change in the forest. The gorgeous wattle trees come into bloom. They've been brightening the forest now for a few weeks and are still going strong. There's nothing quite like a wattle tree. Here's a closeup of a flowering twig that the wild parrots chewed off of our tree (I found it next to the garage)

Delicate, bright and buttery in colour. Here's a closeup of the buds:

I've tried and tried to get a decent photo of an entire tree - and am just not managing to get it into focus - but here's a snap of 3 wattles on the hill taken from a distance.

Honestly, the photo doesn't do justice.

So what happened?

Wednesday came and went, didn't it?  And no post?

You're right.

I'll fess up: bad week here. News from Ohio is, well, not good - as my mother has apparently declined rapidly health-wise. So I was distracted. Really distracted.

And it's a shame because we're just back from a week in Perth and I so wanted to share some photos of the place with you and a story or two.

OK.  I'll make good this coming Wednesday.

Thank you for your patience.

Some Lessons Are Too Hard To Learn

A while back (not all that long ago, really...) I related an incident where Laka chewed through her t-stand (when she was standing on it... IDIOT!) and the crash landing that resulted. Well... obviously we haven't learnt anything. Here's what's left of the t-stand:

Yes, she was sitting on that white cup, leaned down and gnawed away the wood she was standing on. I didn't see it but heard the CRASH... Stephen was there and saw it wall.

She went down hard, really hard, and banged her left wing pretty well - breaking a blood-feather in the bargain. She's fine - only her dignity wounded in the end  -other than the blood, which was... E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E (picture really big bird with really big wings, flapping blood in every direction...)

Pictures from the book: Page 19

Isn't she stunning? This is a Galah - what in the US is called "Rose Breasted Cockatoo". Up until the last six months, we didn't see them around much; they flew through our yard, but didn't stop. But - since about the start of this year, there have been a few around, usually in pairs.

(Click the photo above to view a larger image)

The Galahs I saw in the US never had the depth of colour the wild ones we see here have. The grey is more pronounced with (as you can detect in this photo) a tinge of blue. The breast is a deep pink. The ones I'd seen in the US were lighter coloured.

I remember a woman in Ohio who kept a cardinal. It was missing a leg and had wing injuries which prevented it from flying (it's not legal to keep wild birds in Ohio - she had some kind of special license). Her bird, a male, was definitely red, but his colours weren't the brilliant red of the wild birds. His keeper speculated that there was probably something missing in his diet. Perhaps that would also explain the muted colours of Galahs in the states.

Anyway, we're seeing Galah's more and more now. They are certainly less trusting than the other wild parrots; we can't get near them. But we're happy to have them around to add to the variety.