Little Corella – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST

We had an invitation for lunch with our Ballarat connection, so decided to leave a little earlier, spend a few minutes around the Ballarat Lake, while we had the opportunity.
As the day would have it, it was porridge skies, but sometimes, as I’ve discovered lately those softer melded light conditions are really good for detail of bird feathers.
Mind, I’m partial to a run of sunshine too. 🙂

As they say,—have you ever wondered who ‘they’ are?—obviously not ‘us’,—anyway as ‘they’ say, what we found were the ‘usual suspects’

The highlight of the hour or so was several Great Crested Grebes. And we did spend quite a bit of time photographing insane Corellas as they flew about in large, super-noisy flocks. I’ve never been sure as to what puts them into a frenzy, but once started its self-multiplying and they just keep going until everyone runs out of energy.

So here in no particular order.

Lake Wendouree has no end of Black Swans, and there always seems to be new clutches on the way. This one is quite advanced and good to see those feathers taking shape.

A Masked Lapwing has decided to take a snooze on the side of the track. Totally unphased by passing foot traffic.

Always good to find these birds. Dreaming of seeing, and photographing them dancing.

And here they come. This is the 4,234 trip up and down the lake, calling raucously as they go.

With so much action its hard to keep just one in frame. This is a Long-billed Corella

And a Little Corella zipping between the trees

They’ve seen it all before. This time they are just going to sit and watch it all happen.

Never cease to be amazed that such a big bird can balance so well on one leg and nap at the same time.

Maned Ducks have such distinctive markings on their backs and folded feathers. Something we often miss with the front

No matter the place, or the occasion, a Pacific Black Duck knows how to work a space.

Enjoy.

John Cleese and the Monty Python’s Flying Circus, has a wonderful skit titled: “The Ministry of Silly Walks”, and like most things Python, the humour is in the close representation of real life activities.
As an aside, in our house as I grew up, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, was baned from viewing. My Dad took a dislike to the little fillers between skits by Terry Gilliam’s animations. Perhaps it was the use of things Royal, or the Flag, or just the suggestive innuendos. A surprise really as things relating to British aristocracy were never given much creedeance. A year or so later I moved out anyway, such is life.

We were walking the Lake at Ballarat in the rich glow of the evening light and the Little Corellas were putting on their usual evening entertainment show. The antics of the birds upside down, side-ways and all bent out of shape in the trees reminded me of The Ministry of Silly Walks.

I saw reference to an article the other day that some research has been done, and was continuing into the “Emotion” of creatures. A controversial subject it seems. At one stage it was postulated that human babies did not experience pain in the same way as adults and some surgery was performed without aesthetics. (Here is a link to an ABC artricle

My only understanding is based on purely anecdotal evidence, (good enough for Darwin apparently), but between various dogs, cats and birds that we’ve shared lives with over the years, I would be on the side of the postitives. Sometimes I feel it would be good for the professional resercher to get out of the pristine tiled-wall laboratory and mingle in the dust with the real world.

So as I watched these reckless birds at work or play, or ?? I did draw the distinct conclusion, that not only were they enjoying themselves in their frentic activities, but there was a genuine feeling of delight in the antics. “Ha, think that is good. Here look at this! ”

Either way it was like having a ticket to the circus. Barnum would have been proud.