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I am a mother of eight and grandmother of four who loves to make and create. Rosemary Hill is the name of our home where we live, work, learn and create together

Saturday 15 October 2011

Black Cockatoo - blogtober

I had a great day today! Not sure what it is, but not having a migraine today really gave me a zest for life. Everything seemed impossibly wonderful. Then late this afternoon I saw three black cockatoos and I knew it was a wonderful day for sure! You see in Australia we have lots and lots of cockatoos. Mostly they are the white, sulphur crested cockatoos pictured below. They are everywhere! (And noisy too! Of course, I can forgive them that because they are beautiful.)

regular

ordinary

run of the mill
But black cockatoos are pretty rare so it really was a special day today! The cockatoos I saw looked something like this. (Not my photo)

black cockatoo, wikipedia
We actually have a sulphur crested cockatoo featured in part of our family folklore. When Mr 17 was just 18 months old we went to visit one of my Bradley's cousins. They lived on a farm and apart from dairy cows the farm was also home to rescued wildlife. They had a cocky in a cage and for some reason as my little boy toddled across their grass the cocky opened it's cage (have I said they are pretty smart creatures?) and went straight for my boy. It got in his face and then bit his top lip open. They have very strong beaks! There was blood everywhere and our visit was cut short so that we could race our 18 month old to the hospital. Apparently cocky's beaks are not only strong, but also full of germs so in addition to having to have plastic surgery on his lip to sew it up (general anesthetic) he also had to have an IV of antibiotics. It made for an interesting weekend and makes a pretty interesting story too. I still love cockatoos, but Mr 17 is not so sure. He doesn't really trust them!

5 comments:

Lotti said...

Black Cockatoos are quite stunning to look at. There are some cockatoos around here that I have seen about 4 times now. I think that one of them has rolled in grease or something because it's so dirty. It almost looks black. Well I wouldn't trust one of those cockatoos if it bit me.

Jenny said...

I have noticed a lot around here this past week eating all the pine cones and usually we have heaps of the sulphur crested ones-not sure why but they are gorgeous

sandra said...

we had a Major Mitchell cocky years ago, it hated everyone except my brother. He could do anything with it,the rest of us got bitten very smartly.

Sarah said...

Oh POOR M 17. I would not like the parrots either!!! When my 12 yo was younger (say about 6 or 7) we were at a pet store - not realising around the corner was a big cage of these parrots. As we came around two of them went bizzurk with noise and etc. It was ear pinching and frightened him so much we had to leave the store. He still to this day is weary of them.

quilterliz said...

G'day. I haven't seen a black cocky around here for a long time. Lots of the sulfur creasted ones though. Noisy, destructive birds, but beautiful creatures. I got bitten by one some years ago when I was trying to rescue it, but that's another story. Take care. Liz...