Beakonsfield

This is about as close as I've been to a parrot in a few weeks.

I did, however, see two particularly cute rainbow lorikeets canoodling in a date palm, next to Novak's pub, in Northbridge, this morning. They were very chipper, having been deloused by a generous storm cloud.

Several passers by stopped to spy the colourful couple. So parrot appreciation could be on the up in Perth. Let's hope so.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The matter in hand is a mic in a mic stand and Definition of Sound as the main brand.

No, hang on, back to the real matter at hand. The pic' above.

Yes, for the past few weeks a veritable cornucopia of parrots on South Street, Beaconsfield, has been stopping off at Chez Un tournesol for breakfast.

I took this snap Monday morning, and the silly things flew up onto a power line when I got too close.

They are wild, after all.

Wild, but mild.

Galahs and the bees

There's a big old galah nest in this spotted gum (Eucalyptus maculata), outside the TAFE college in Oxford Street, Leederville.

Only problem is, it's a good home for bees too.


At the moment, though, galahs seem to be winning over bees, with a flock of about six of the so-called pink and greys hanging around the gumtree and nearby power poles on Saturday morning just passed.

Civil disobedience

Click on photo for best view of chicken-licken, stage left.

(snapped in Caesar Street, Beaconsfield, beside Bruce Lee Oval)

The clouds are here, they are not in the sky.

I love how junior pink and grey's feathers look like clouds.

It's about as close to the clouds as he'll get for a while, because he's still ridiculously shaky in flight.

Got a good set of lungs on him when he's hungy, though.

Clipped Wingwood

"Yeah, I'm talking' to you ... Feelin' lucky, punk?"

Action shot

This is about as animated as the plump things get when they're grazing.

Hazel and I reckon baby galahs look like vampire bats. And, indeed, they are rather batty. Hence our bastardisation of the Peter Tosh song:

"Vampire!
You really don't know what to do.
You a Vampire!
But how could anyone expect you to?"

Pink sky in the morning, a farmer's warning

Stopping off to snap a few 28ers yesterday, I strayed upon this little number, the first baby galah of the parrot season. Grazing happily he was, alongside his equally ravenous mother.

Proving, of course, that the seed never falls far from the tree.

Galahs are more frequently called 'pink and greys' in Western Australia. The poor things were probably so named because a pink and grey mist is all a farmer sees when he shoots 'em with his 22.

It's a poetic, romantic, place, this Western Australia.

Tippy-toe! Tippy-toe! Wild parrots put on Kings Park show.

It's been a while since a Western Ringneck featured on Wild Parrots, so here's a couple in the foreground, snapped by me this arvy in Kings Park.

That's a baby galah in the background, happily grazing away under the negligent eye of his mum, but more on baby galah later.

Back to the ringnecker, which Western Australians know better as a '28', because that's the sound its rolling chirp makes. Either that, or 'tippy toe!', as George Costanza would say.

Anthropocentric but cute

"Yeah, bring it on!"

Galah event

It's coming into wildflower season in southern Western Australia. And on this blog, that can only mean one thing.

It's wild parrot season too!

While there's not a wildflower to be seen in this shot, and this iddie snapped this morning is a somewhat docile specimen, his dead tree in Perth's King's Park later in the wild parrot season springs forth with all manner of beaked screechers.

Bring it on!!!

A right galah

This pink and grey was sprung in our backyard this evening doing what pink and greys do best - fanging.

The poor halfwit was so intent on fanging that it didn't notice the stealthy approach of Pounce! the cat.

Luckily the clicking of camera shutter disturbed the clicking of citrus seed and a flurry of fur and feather was narrowly averted.

Mystery parrot

On first inspection, this Esplanade Park claw-gripper looks well enough like a galah.

But he hangs around all day with a ground-dwelling flock of Cacatua pastinator. He also hops around and carries on more like a pastinator than a galah, and is bigger than your average galah.

Hazel, who snapped him, and I think he's the product of unholy union.
But oh, what a union!

Electric light orchestra

Back south again to Fremantle, where the weather wasn't so flash for this poor flock of wild iddies.

But they got it all over their mates

I'd better ease you into the world of the long-billed corella (Cacatua tenuirostris) slowly, because what comes next is really quite shocking.

They're not real bright

It's true. Hazel and I call these cherub-like creatures 'nature's idiots' or 'iddies' for short.

Most Australians call them galahs. But I once saw a bedraggled, caged specimen at San Diego zoo behind a tin sign which read 'rose-breasted parrot'.

When she was a kid, my sister called them 'town birds' - they love the suburbs, you see. Trouble is, iddies also love wheat fields, and so farmers hate iddies.

These two cuties were sprung fanging grass seeds today in Hilton Park, Fremantle, Western Australia.

Galahs Galore

There's galahs galore at your Galahs Galore store!

(Coolbellup, Western Australia branch)