Bird Watching: Black swan and cygnets at local lake, 1 by MargaretK

MargaretK wrote:
Thanks Kayly. Pink and Greys are beautiful birds although they sometimes test your patience when they start eating the house. In spring they bring their babies in the hope of scoring a free feed, which they get, but in very limited amounts, more like a treat, to prevent dependence. The sound the babies make is like a human baby crying - well almost. We used to have about fifty birds coming at one time, but now only feed one particular pair, Mr One-Eye, who, surprise, surprise, has only one eye (see image) and his mate. They've been coming for years now. They bring their own babies each spring, but often have several nieces and nephews in tow.

Hi dell, their colours are truly extraordinary - quite garish, really. They are also very noisy. We have a very large gum tree in the yard and sometimes there are countless dozens in the tree, all competing to see who can make the most racket. You can't hear yourself think. Each day, at dawn and dusk, in the Norfolk Island pines at Cottesloe, there are countless hundreds. The noise is so great, it almost takes on a surreal quality -too much for the senses to deal with. As I mentioned, before, they are an introduced species to Western Australia and are becoming an increasing problem by taking food and nesting sites from less aggressive species, including honeyeaters. We have several in a large aviary that have come to us injured- they cannot be released because of their feral status. One of the lorikeets started coming to the wire and formed a relationship with one of the aviary birds. We were able to catch it very easily and it and the one who was already in the aviary are now a strongly bonded pair.

Hey, Hap, I thought I trouble getting the cockatoo into the box. Be careful when the emu arrives. It will be REALLY cranky.