Tag Archives: birds

Fooled

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 I saw a creature in long shaded grass
 Apparently brown and moving fast
 It turned and twisted while trying to pass
 Through slender grain of yellow cast
  
 I looked some time at its bobbing head
 At its swinging tail strange pointed red
 The smooth curved back came round again
 Fluidly rodent it looked up at me then
  
 To my surprise it turned out to be
 Not a snake or rodent looking at me
 But of avian descent with full head to see
 A juvenile rosella stared knowingly
  
 Who’d have thought such bright disguise
 Could cloud the vision of observer eyes
 On the ground coloured plumage denied
 Flashy brilliance so vivid in the sky

magpie

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that magpie
has been
sitting on that bough 
for half an hour
black and white 
against the crying sky 
it chortles and carols
from time to time
i watch and listen
biding my moment
despite the march of time
i look up and down
magpie looks left and right
we witness the crying sky
present and separate 
each in place
some kind of joy
and the sky cries on

Kookaburra

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Portrait of a Kookaburra
Ever watch a kookaburra
Sweep in from on high
In a perfect arc
Geometry made art
Beak as an arrowhead
Body flat as an arrow
Piercing the air
Fletched tail as rudder
Precision steering
A dart to the bullseye
Wings not moving a millimetre
Purposeful focussed targeted
Missile like glide
Ever watch a kookaburra?

Falling birds

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 All those birds
 falling from the sky
 Some birds live 
 More birds die
 So consider
 Why oh why?
 We poison
 food chains
 and nature deny
 We pave 
 We divert
 We scrape the sky
 We take 
 too much
 don’t comply
 heat the planet
 watch it dry
 Then only
 crocodile tears
 do we cry
 As our legacy
 becomes
 the worlds biggest
 lie
 That we care
 action says
 we deny

The Reed Warbler

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Reed Warbler at Polly McQuinns
 
 That clamorous reed warbler
 With the protracted breeding song
 Passages of enamouring power
 Designed to bring along
 A partner for the season
 With whom to court and spark
 To share nesting in long reeds
 At the edges of the lake 
 
 I do not know the words
 Of this loud and spirited song
 Launched from this small bird’s throat
 Into the gathered avian throng
 In the early morning, 
 at the end of each long day
 Persistent and single minded
 Seeking a mate to hold in sway
 But the message is clear and proud
 I am the one for you
 Come to me my darling 
 Let’s see what two can do

Birdlife

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20200811_pho_Miepoll 04

Birds sit in the top of the trees

Planning attacks on insects and bees

They sit on their branches

Scanning insect sky dances

With shelter from leaves as their eaves

 

Birds on the end of a bough

Twitter loudly just to show how

They can talk to each other

Every sister and brother

In a way that says Hey, we know how!

 

Birds that forage on the ground

A set who are basically unsound

They defy law and order

Like lambs to the slaughter

Because predators are always around

 

Birds that drink from a dish

Do so in order to wish

For more handouts of bread

To keep them well fed

As their tails twitch and go swish

 

Birds that peck at a window

Are very much likely to forgo

Food on their plate

Appetite they may sate

Fighting themselves as a foe

 

Birds that fly in the sky

Look down and say my oh my

All the people down there

At whom we can stare

Choose to be grounded why oh why

 

Birds that float on the water

Think it’s the place where they oughta

Because the land is not safe

From trouble and strife

The water is a more secure quarter

 

Birds who love to eat worms

Queue to take it in turns

At freshly tossed compost

Of breaking down humus

Knowing a worm never learns