There would not be one Aussie reading this who has never said "Hello Cocky!" expecting a return "Hello Cocky" from the parrot. True?
HOWEVER, at the moment they are a real pest on our little farm as thousands of them have made our 100 acres their home - squawking and being destructive. These are the two bad traits they are famous for, that distinctive raucous call and stripping the bark off trees and often stripping house decking and verandahs.
They have stripped all our pine trees feeding on the pine cones, leaving them laying all over the ground and often flying off with them in their beak, often dropping them on our tin roof sounding like a bomb going off and then the noise of the cone tumbling down the roof into the gutter. All our fruit trees are ruined with half eaten fruit on the trees and the rest on the ground.
They've been eating the seeds of grasses trying to grow in our drought and feast on the feed John gives the stock in these harsh times - not to mention being a pest in my chook yard. In this smallish photo, can you see the myriads of them on the ground eating the seed?
Normally, I love them, BUT.............
Our heart goes out to those experiencing bushfires throughout our country. Particularly, in Victoria and South Australia as the smoke has been so dense that it has found it's way to our region, day after day. Even our beautiful sunsets at this time of the year have been subdued with the dense smoke.
Of course, anything business-wise to do with farm products take my fancy and I'm pleased to announce we now have received our stock of Bonnie Keller's Award Winning Quilt, "Ms MacDonald's Farm" Farm Quilt Pattern. Included is a 32 page technique book describing Bonnie's applique method and all 12 full-sized patterns.
LOVE IT - LOVE IT - LOVE IT
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I feel your pain over the cockies Judy. Apart from the noise and the mess they do the same to the mature cedar and mature Arizona cypress in our 1/3 acre village block. Yes I know they are too big for the block - they have been here since about the 1880s, the house only since 1997 (2 recycled weatherboard houses from Canberra combined into one house) so they have priority over the house, along with the equally mature oak tree in the back garden which acts as a natural air conditioner on our exposed western side. The cockies take great delight in dropping the cones on our heads when we are working in the garden!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness. I know they are intelligent but would they really do that on purpose?
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