birds in the garden

A few years the especially tame lorikeet got onto our back verandah and couldn't find her way out and started to panic. Knowing how tame she was I decided to pick her up, calm her down and take her to the open door. Big mistake and I still have a scar to prove it.

Birds can be amazing. Many years ago when we lived in Caloundra we used to have lorikeets come in an feed on the native plants we used to grow. I thought I would see how close I could get to them and made up a weak water and honey solution and soaked some bread in it.

Ten minutes later I was upstairs in the phone to Lee to tell her that I had five of them on my arms and shoulders after they decided they liked the food and were quite happy to take a walk around the garden with me.

Magpies are good as well. I was at golf the other day and I pulled a muesli out for a snack and next thing three magpies were there for a feed. They did not land on me but they would fly up and take bits out of my hand. The guy next door does the same thing with Kookaburras.

We used to have a family of kookaburras come for a feed. They'd sit on the clothes line and wait patiently for some mince. I was a bit scared to feed them by hand though, their beaks looked very sharp and scary. We don't often see kookas in suburbia, so their visits were special.
Last year an exhausted looking rainbow lorikeet came to my aviary. Seemed very tame. After giving it water and food, I managed to put in with my budgies, who were less than impressed, so it could recuperate for a while. Looked online and found someone not too far away who'd lost their beloved pet. Bloke came straight over and watched as I gently caught "Baby". Yowchhhh!!!! I know what you mean Ausrose!
As it turned out it wasn't his pet bird after all that anyway. The bird stayed for days and eventually joined a wild flock. She comes back to visit now and then. Well I like to think its her.

Ausrose wrote:

What I like about "our" flock of lorikeets is we have the pleasures of interacting with birds but they aren't locked up in cages. We also interact with a flock of up to thirty white cockatoos but they haven't been around of late.

Going by the noise outside at present I think they moved to our place. There would not be thirty of them but those that are there are making a real racket.
We get the black ones as well and sometimes their call is downright haunting.

I love the black ones Gary, but I haven't seen them since I left WA. 

Our neighbour over the back fence used to feed the kookies. He moved out, but one of the kookies still hangs around demanding food. He hurtles himself at the kitchen window when he sees the new owner inside. So far he has broken that kitchen window and ended up inside on the kitchen bench 3 times. Hahah. Cheaper just to give him some mince!