Friday, October 07, 2011

Red Rumped Grass Parrot

While sauntering up High Street towards Clifton Hill about an hour ago, I observed these wonderful little grass parrots, which I’ve identified as Red Rumped Grass Parrots. I had observed them in the same place – a grassy strip just next to the road – earlier this week, so took my camera with me this time just in case they were still inhabiting the area.

And there they were, totally ignoring the roaring traffic and passersby alike. They don’t fly away when you stop to look, so I was able to get a few photos of them.

grass_parrot 007
A male and female together

grass_parrot 010
Male parrot perched on the footpath

And just because I had my camera with me I decided to photograph the lilac bush in the front yard. It always flowers in October and the bush is a descendent of a lilac tree that grew in the backyard of a house I lived in the early 1980’s. When I left that place I planted a sucker in a pot, and eventually transplanted into the front yard of our present residence. It took about 20 years for it to produce flowers, but every October nowadays it is full of blooms and the exquisite scent floats out into the street, so you can smell it as you walk by.

lilac 002 (Medium)

Ah, the wonders of nature in springtime, even here in the suburbs.

3 comments:

iODyne said...

20 years for a flower? O the patience of the true horticulturist.
How sweet of the birds to allow you near. It astounds me when I get near birds which have been oblivious to hurtling traffic alongside them, and they freak out at a human FFS.
I love them for their survival abilities. well-snapped.

Clare Dudman said...

Such exotic little birds! I'd not heard of grass parrots before - but they are really pretty. And so great you can go so close.

Anonymous said...

Lovely birds ... and lovely lilac. Isn't Spring wonderful ... that is, when it's not being it's awful changeable weathery self.