Crockerytoo

Snapped today in the courtyard of a magnificent art deco house opposite Perth's Hyde Park was this Sulphur-crested cocky.

He seemed to be getting along well with the two resident tortoiseshell cats.

Wild gravity

Here is Hazel and my all time favourite parrot - the immortal Woo - being groomed by his mother, Waxy Balls.

This pic' is both sweet and sour. Sweet, because Woo was sweet. Sour because the dark patch on his forehead was the first sign of the beak and feather disease that would eventually kill him.

Poor Woo. He was one of a kind.

Pecking order

Another blast from a Canberra spring gone by for you to enjoy.

There was a definite pecking order with these sulphur crest cockatoos, though occassionally a rogue cocky would fly in and upset the applecart.

Waxing lyrical

Known to Hazel and I as Waxy Balls, this ridiculous beast was the mother of Woo and the wife of mighty Behemoth.

The most inquisitive of the myriad parrots that would drop by our Canberra verandah, she would often crane her neck to check out what was going on inside our unit.

And like most sulphur crests, she didn't mind a fang.

Birdbrains

Our verandah back in Canberra was known as the menagerie, for obvious reasons.

I'm being followed by a Woo shadow.

So grief-stricken were we when Woo flew off this mortal coil that we see him everywhere we go: lurking in shadows, flitting through parklands, etched into mist-marks on shower screens ...
(photo by Hazel Blackberry)

Behemoth and Waxy Balls

The big fella on the left, who looks like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, is called Behemoth. He lives in the wild around Brisbane Avenue in Canberra, the capital of Australia.

He could be 38 years old. He could also be 60 years old. But judging by the way he carries on, bullying everyone outta the way, I reckon he's 38.

Behemoth's wife, pictured stage right, is known as Waxy Balls. In the late 1990s they had a son called Woo, who tragically contracted beak and feather disease and died:

The Woo flies gently up and down the avenue.
"Wa wa wa wa!"
He seemed to like this time of year.
Our lives will be forever Autumn,
now Woo's not here.
Poor Woo's not here!
He's just not here!

(photo courtesy Hazel Blackberry)