Two Cockatoos and a Little Bird

 Lots of dawn activity in the trees with two sulphur crested cockatoos chasing a little bird.

Sulphur crested cockatoo with little bird disappearing

to the right

Second cockatoo (enlarged below) turns cartwheels as the dawn sunlight creeps over the rooftop. 

Mother's Day with Cockatoos and Crow

Mother's Day dawned clear, bright and chilly and the sulphur-crested Cockatoos were out in force. This group of 15 had a black crow badgering them sorely.

Caw, caw, caw. Caw, caw, caw. When they flew away he chased two of them down the street. Did he want to be friends or had they invaded his territory?

Sulphur crested Cockatoos and one black Crow

Watching sunflowers grow

December

January

I planted some sunflowers in front of the garage as a 'Blickfang' (eye-catcher) this spring and they have grown beyond my expectations.  When I went to Hobart in November they were still a few inches tall. On my return after four days, they had doubled in size. It has been a pleasure to watch them grow tall then even taller. Then they flowered and their yellow disk flowers followed the sun as it passed overhead.
 

Setting seed

Now they grow bulbous, more bulbous every day. You can almost see the seeds growing inside them.   The flowers are too heavy to follow the sun now, looking east all day instead.

If you ever want to observe flowers through their stages, plant them in front of your breakfast window.

One week on (16 January) seeds are setting and the flowers bow their weighty heads.  Then the cockatoos discover them ...

Cockatoos discover sunflowers

The seeds are yet unripe but the cockies don't care and would just destroy the plants then leave.  So I chase them off and bag the heads.

to be continued ... 

Bagged sunflower heads

Kookaburra and Cockatoo T shirts

I just made Kookaburra and Cockatoo T shirt designs using drawings I did in Patonga last summer. I posted them online at Zazzle. You haven't heard of Zazzle? That's where you buy your next T shirt!

I built a Zazzle Panel (below) which scrolls through products. If you click on it and you are sent to a page that says 'No products' ... don't believe it (there is a bug in the system), just click on 'view all products'.

View more personalized gifts from Zazzle.

Sulphur crested cockatoos

Cockatoos are wonderful to draw, especially when they are tame and sit around on balcony furniture like model subjects. I have just put a series of cockatoo drawings online
at artsmitten.com

Cockatoos

Sulphur crested Cockatoos are playful creatures and do all manner of tricks to catch your attention. This group was sitting on a powerline on the NSW Central Coast, waiting to be fed.