Birds and Flowers

I am posting some photos of local birds for anyone who is interested and particularly for Michael Perchard who kindly posted great photos on his blog of beautiful Cardinals and Chickadees from his local area in the USA.
First a distraction though, with the above photo I took yesterday of our Red Cap Gum, flowering in all its glory. It almost looks as if the photo is upside down but that's just because of it's weeping habit. It often has a gaggle of feral Rainbow Lorikeets visiting but not yesterday when I had my camera at the ready. We used to get a lot of the Twenty Eight Parrots in our garden but since the unwelcome proliferation of the lorikeets we don't often see them in the back yard. They are still easy to spot in local bushland thankfully. Here is one below.

The Pink and Grey Galahs are amongst my favourite birds.  They have a wonderful sense of humour and are very raucous. I'm sure they even play chicken on the roads. We've had them waddle across in front of us, taking their time and swaggering with nonchalance, only to fly off with seconds to spare. They fly in flocks and descend on trees or grassed areas like a bunch of juvenile delinquents. Last year when driving through the wheatbelt we saw hundreds of them wheeling through the sky as one.  I'd forgotten how big their flocks could grow to in the open country. They nest high up in tree hollows.

Last but not least today is a photo of some Kookaburras from the kingfisher family - also ferals to our state from the East. They have been established here since before I was born and I was well into adulthood before I knew they were blow-ins.  They make the greatest sound imaginable. They laugh like hysterical maniacs when at full throttle.