Here, via frykitty, is a romantic tale for Valentine’s Day. It’s the tale of two birds — two cockatoos — who fell madly in love.
About eight years ago a wild Australian Sulphur Crested Cockatoo flew into a car and broke its wing. The motorist took it to the Vet in Nerang, Queensland, who had to amputate the wing. We adopted her — for which we needed a National Parks and Wildlife permit — and kept her in a cage outside where she was often visited by wild Cockatoos. One of the things that impressed us was how she would push lettuce leaves through the bars of the cage, offering food to visitors. Last Sunday 23 July 2006, she again had a visitor…
Naturally the new visitor becomes a mate. But I won’t spoil the story for you. Go read it yourself. But be sure to follow the “next page” links to get the whole thing. It’s charming.
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Tried to email this to the cockatoo guys but no luck, so putting my impressions here:
Hi guys, good work on your site, it’s a beautifully told and illustrated history of the animals in your yard and you should be proud of your work. Nice to see the way it branches out at the end, interest is just like evolution huh :)
The moment of your dad cockatoo burying the baby was tragic but also kind of telling, we don’t necessarily know what’s good for the animals and sometimes they’re the better judges of what they need and don’t need. Maybe there was something wrong with the baby that a person wouldn’t see, but which might impact the other cockatoos in the area, or even just their family. At first I thought it was just a way of camouflaging them.
Anyhow, I’m very impressed by your love of the animals in your area and wish there were more people like you, the world would sure be a different place then :) Keep up the good work.