Occasionally, however, we get unwelcome visitors.
These blokes are so cool and casual - never in a hurry to go anywhere - and even when they cruise past, they do so on lazy wings that seem to beat to a somnolent rhythm.
Yellow tailed black cockatoos are the vandals of the bush.
They hang in gangs and feed on grubs that they can hear inside the branches. I'm not sure what the grubs are doing to make all the noise - maybe choir practice - but once detected they are cockatoo meat!
The birds have beaks that are the equivalent of the jaws of life - only, in this case quite the opposite.
They tear the branches apart piece by piece to access the grub a-la-cart.
This would be fine if that was the end of it, but for days afterwards the trees drop weakened branches - some up to two and three inches thick.
Ouch!
Over the last few years we have noticed a change in the migratory patterns of these birds.
Where, once before, they appeared in two and threes, now they are here in twenties and thirties.
I know these cool dudes have to eat - but, jeez fellas - clean up after yourselves!
Curses - the bower birds are raiding the grapes again.
Oh, the trials of living in paradise!
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