aesmael

allieflowlight asked me my favourite kinds of birds.

Local birds like magpies (though not up close - they can be a walking hazard), cassowaries (again, from a distance) (also, although the link focuses on an Australian species, I think they are primarily of New Guinea). The mallee fowl and lyrebirds. I guess the kookaburra is okay too. And the kiwi, although that is from New Zealand, but I always loved those adorable little things.
Corvids, I love corvids, those local and not. Crows and ravens, we have some native though I wonder if those be the ones I see.
And parrots. The galahs and the cockatoos but most especially the rosellas (and these) and the lorikeets. Rainbow lorikeets feed in my yard sometimes and I love to see them.

I was not actually very fond of kookaburras or galahs when I was younger. Found their noise unpleasant and grating, but these days they are at least a familiar comfort in appearance. Also I forgot to mention satin bowerbirds.

Many of these birds are not immediately local to me - where I live has magpies, galahs and lorikeets - but those are still the birds I grew up with.

It puzzles me when people talk about how exotic and bizarre the local species are. Have they forgotten where they live? This is ordinary, they are the normal, and if any plants and animals should be viewed exotic it ought be those bizarre foreign creatures, the cows and rabbits and bears.

Rosella was a brand of soup when I was young, I think. Tomato soup with a crimson rosella on the tin label. My grandmother would make soup and I would take the tin and stare at the bird.

Year's dark days arrive
Our home becomes
all hours, all places,
immersed in winter's shade

* * *

The hour of birds
Dominion theirs
Magpies, crows,
Dark-winged birds
About their business

Squawking lorikeets
Perched above in rightful protest
Of a fox like me
But they are too pretty to eat

* * *

Night comes early
Blending shade and light
Earth and air, water falling
Guides our path
Charges, exultant

Wanting to reach out
Call to lightning
But not yet