A cockatoo shat in my bicycle helmet today.
Cockatoo shit is large. And semi-liquid. And splats quite convincingly.
Other reasons they aren't so popular with me right now: 16 of them in a tree outside my window performed the traditional cockatoo ritual known as "squawking your head off" to welcome the rain at six o'clock this morning.
Cockatoos get more excited by rain than any other bird I've come across. Either it's a cultural hangover from before they migrated out of the outback and only saw rain once a decade, or they have a memory span so short that they really don't think they've ever seen it before.
"Wet stuff! Falling from sky! Splat splat splat!" (Which pretty well sums up both incidents, really.)
Thursday, May 04, 2006
And did I mention the wildlife?
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3 Comments:
*In* you helmet? IN it? How?
The cockatoos sound really cute, sorry!
Maybe they all think the sky is falling? :)
I clearly remember the racket the cockatoos (and other characters) made at dawn during my visit to Brisbane. It was exotic. But I was a visitor, not a resident.
"or they have a memory span so short that they really don't think they've ever seen it before." I'm betting on this one. I'm betting that cockatoos' brains approximate those of the North American wild turkey.
I leave my helmet chained to my bicycle during the day. In the past I haven't paid attention to whether it is lying with the inside facing up or down. In the future I will do.
I saw the whole thing happen as I was walking towards my bicycle to unchain it at the end of the day.
And senioritis -- I thought the cockatoo noises were pretty cool and exotic too, the first few weeks I lived here!
I still think they are heartbreakingly cute, but I wish someone would catch them and stick a cork in both ends.
Talk to me! (You know you want to!)