Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Chattering

It's one of those warm but wet early Autumn days here in the outer western reaches of Sydney. My office is located is a suburban street, and just outside are some mature gum trees that play host to all sorts or native birds.


Rainbow Lorikeet. Photo taken from the
Canberra Ornithologists Group website.


When it starts to rain these little guys go beserk. Seriously. This has to be heard to be believed. Get 20 of these little blighters chattering away together and you can hardly hear yourself think. I'm not sure what it is about the rain that pushes their buttons, opportunity for a quick bath maybe, but they hang out in the tops of the trees and fluff and preen and gabble like mad. They've been at it for about 20 minutes now and already I'm like guys, enough.

11 comments:

freakgirl said...

You get to see birds like that, just hanging out? I'm so jealous.

I have about five red cardinals in our yard during the day, and that little splash of color always makes me smile. But that's pretty much all we get here in Jersey.

The Other Andrew said...

Yes, we do! They're around quite a lot, and I see them even in my very urban street that I live in quite often. My friend Laubscher (link in my sidebar) has taken some gorgeous photos of the little blighters from hi balcony.

I've only seen a red cardinal in pictures, they look pretty cool.

Keith said...

The cardinal is Ohio's state bird! You learned something today. Something useless, but something nevertheless.

I had the same thought as La Freakgirl. Amazing to think of a whole flock of those birds just outside your window. Tres exotique!

M-H said...

They've been very noisy aorund here too, along with the cockatoos. The most birds I've seen in the 3.5 years I've lived here.

The Other Andrew said...

We get nightly (almost) fly overs of flocks of cockatoos. I just commented to someone here yesterday how they seem to be one of the few birds that call too each other constantly as they fly. Noisy, but it's always a great heads up to spot them.

Ur-spo said...

what a gorgeous bird
When I dream of going to Australia, it is to see the wildlife like this.

Andreas said...

A mention! :-)

At our old apartment we used to have a flock of about twenty lorikeets who'd visit us on a daily basis. Nothing can adequately prepare you for the noise they can make.

Andrew, if those lorikeets are regulars at your work you should put out a bowl of water with honey for them. If they drink enough of it they get a bit drunk :-)

The Other Andrew said...

Hah, then they'd really never shut up!...

Miss Wired said...

There are trees in the Northern Rivers were these guys would get seriously drunk then fly off, haphazardly in all directions - they were entertainment!

Occasionally they'd fly over the nearest human and piss... so watch out.

Christopher said...

The only other birds (other than pigeons & finches) we get in my area (Long Beach - suburb of L.A.) are these green parrots that fly around in a NOISY flock. The "story" is that they escaped from a petshop that burnt down.

Supposedly someone ran in while the fire was going and started to open up all of the animal's cages. Since then these birds have multplied like crazy. They're beautiful, but noisy.

That Lorikeet looks unreal...photoshop? haha!

The Other Andrew said...

Eww, parrot piss!

Christopher, I had heard that story about those parrots. Any idea what kind they are? I can assure you that they really are that brightly coloured! They're quite small, so you get little flashes of bright colours as they fly through the trees - like this pic by my friend Laubscher.