Category Archives: Birds
Lyrebird
This bird is named for its amazing tailfeathers which resemble a lyre, a U-shaped, harp-like instrument. Unfortunately, the video only shows glimpses of the tailfeathers – but the main feature of the clip is to show the mimicry the lyrebird is capable of. They have been heard mimicking other birds, as well as copying sounds like sirens, dogs barking, and even cameras clicking. What a variety!
The video was taken by my friends who visited Australia recently. Lyrebirds are rather shy so this was a lucky capture.
Please turn up the volume for the best results.
Free Lunch
Hungry?
Table is set
Who says there’s no free lunch?
Suet for me and seeds for you
Just right.
P.S. I just figured out why poets are encouraged to write cinquains. It’s to make sure they don’t ramble on too much.
Five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables respectively.
Bath Time
The Missus says for my New Year’s resolution, I should have a bath.
All right! I’ll show her I’m a tough guy. Just because it’s freezing…. I’ll take it like a man.
Krrrrrrikey! What was I thinking?!
That’s enough of that. If she doesn’t like it, she can just smell me later.
Crispin’s Dining Room
While pruning one of our yew trees, I reached in towards the center, groping for the branch to cut, and felt a bird’s nest, obviously left there late last spring. Hesitantly, I checked for leftover unhatched eggs or dead chicks before I would throw the nest away.
The “eggs” I found in the nest were all cracked open, but they sure looked like hazelnut shells to me.
“Aha! Crispin the Squirrel has been here. I hope he only found the nest after the baby birds had flown.” I reasoned that the hazelnuts would not have been ripe until late fall, and the baby birds would have flown in the spring, so I didn’t think too badly of Crispin for making himself at home in this new dining room of his.
“Uh-ohhh … she found my stash.”
Another cinquain – five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables in each line respectively.
Crispin
Pampered squirrel
Who enjoys my woodshed
Where I bring him cracked hazelnuts
To eat.
Famished Flicker
Flicker is bigger than the little juncos and towhees. He takes advantage of his size to get his fill of suet.
It’s cold and rainy in the video clip. The towhee and junco try in vain to get a bite.
But all are vulnerable when the hawk moves in.
I’m trying my hand at writing cinquains (sin kanes). They have five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables in each line respectively.
Be patient please. This is my first one ever.
Flicker
Hogging suet
Hungry but not sharing
Forgets about pecking order
And hawks.
Dusky Moorhen
I think this is either a Eurasian moorhen or a dusky moorhen, probably the latter. They belong to the rail family.
The photo was taken by friends on the east coast of Australia.
A moorhen whose baby looked pallid,
Said, “Here, Junior, eat up your salad.”
As Junior was mewling,
The two kept on dueling,
And turned the scene into a ballad.
Christmas Dinner on the Beach
Merry Christmas, everyone.
May we all be kind to each other.
The eagles are setting an example here.
Two eagles who dined on the beach
Were watched by a crow out of reach,
Said one to the other,
Save some for our brother,
Ensuring a morsel for each.
King of the Beach
Today’s and tomorrow’s photos/limericks are both about eagles, but each of the eagles has different views about sharing.
An eagle devouring a clam
Told all nearby seagulls to scram,
“I’ll share it,” he said,
“If you bring me some bread,
And possibly throw in some jam.”
The Competition
Three chickens who constantly cackle
Keep eyeing the guy with the hackle,
But cock-of-the-walk,
Says, “There’s way too much talk,
The brown hen’s the one I would tackle.”
wordsfromanneli 