Just Take A Number

This post is for Peter! Yesterday we saw the famous "No. 28 Parrot" - that's it's official name! I am trying to find out why. Anyway, we saw one sitting in a tree just thirty feet away, I thought it was a ringneck but no it was ol' 28. I am very behind in ticking off sightings in the bird book but will get on to it!

Travelling north out of Meeka there's sort of a stretch about 100 km out where you see tons of wedgetail eagles. They're HUGE. They sit on roadkill at the side of the highway and glare at you as you drive past. When they launch themselves, they fly into the wind, so if you're driving along a busy eagle section you have to really watch it - if it hits the windscreen, you'll end up with a wedgetail eagle in your lap (just before you crash screaming into the bush). One of the truckies actually rescued one which flew across his path & got itself caught in the bullbar; they managed to extract it in town after much noise and clawing and it survived.

The birds are too quick to get decent photos, but we regularly see blue and green budgies, kites, falcons, finches, the occasional bustard, and various cockatoos & parrots. Stunning little honeyeaters line up on my fence most days, very cute.

Here's what No. 28 looks like: