Parrots on parade

 We were visited by a pair of king parrots the other day. I've seen lots in the Blue Mountains and elsewhere, but I think these were my first sightings in our suburb here. They're rather fine, with the distinctive bright green and red bits, and the light green 'shoulder stripe'.

A day or two later some crimson rosellas came through, making quite a meal of the callistemon tree which was in full bloom. They're more common than the king parrots, but not in the near plague proportions of the sulphur crested cockatoos and the rainbow lorikeets. The former can be a bit of a worry. They can take a liking to people's houses - as in a liking to eating them. So far ours seem to make do with worms from the grass verge.

The latter are most people's favourites because of their splendid array of (rainbow) colours. For a while I thought that a pair were nesting in the stump of a sawn off branch on one of our Sydney red gums. They were spending a lot of time up there. But not enough to be raising chicks, I decided. I think they were just eating grubs out of it.

N