But......
This patch was once filled with beautifully spaced heritage corn grown from seed. Only a few of the 30 odd plants remain. The cucumbers I placed in between them using the three sisters approach are also snipped and kaput.The second lot of corn has also emerged and been trimmed.
What was verdant and lovingly tended is now brown and lifeless. They even snipped all the flower heads off my marigolds just to add insult to injury.
Now the autumn maize is growing,
Now the corn-cob fills,
Where the Little River flowing
Winds among the hills.
Over mountain peaks outlying
Clear against the blue
Comes a scout in silence flying,
One white cockatoo.
Back he goes to where the meeting
Waits among the trees.
Says, “The corn is fit for eating;
Hurry, if you please.”
Skirmishers, their line extendiing,
Shout the joyful news;
Down they drop like snow descending,
Clouds of cockatoos.
At their husking competition
Hear them screech and yell.
On a gum tree’s high position
Sits a sentinel.
Soon the boss goes boundary riding;
But the wise old bird,
Mute among the branches hiding,
Never says a word.
— excerpt from poem by A B Banjo Paterson 1930s
Now the corn-cob fills,
Where the Little River flowing
Winds among the hills.
Over mountain peaks outlying
Clear against the blue
Comes a scout in silence flying,
One white cockatoo.
Back he goes to where the meeting
Waits among the trees.
Says, “The corn is fit for eating;
Hurry, if you please.”
Skirmishers, their line extendiing,
Shout the joyful news;
Down they drop like snow descending,
Clouds of cockatoos.
At their husking competition
Hear them screech and yell.
On a gum tree’s high position
Sits a sentinel.
Soon the boss goes boundary riding;
But the wise old bird,
Mute among the branches hiding,
Never says a word.
— excerpt from poem by A B Banjo Paterson 1930s
Don't be fooled by their good looks. Last year they were snipping off my Giant Russian Sunflowers before they had even flowered. Any suggestions welcome.
Kirsty, how awful!! They are noisy critters too!
ReplyDeleteI really feel for you, i know what it's like to walk out and see your garden decimated! I shudder when i hear them flying in and setting up in the trees....we have had some success with hanging cd's around in the garden, they don't like it when they catch the light and flash....but they seem to be a bird that doesn't have much fear unfortunately, i am nearly at the stage of netting everything.
ReplyDeleteHope you can move them on!
rotten scoundrels. How awful!
ReplyDeleteSophieBx
When I started reading I had to google 'Cockatoos' to find out who or what caused all that damage. Now, I can hardly believe it. Knowing how attached I can get to a single plant, I do feel for you. In the same time I started to imagine my own reaction to seeing something like that in my garden. I'd probably call the newspaper, or the police. We, of course, have absolutely nothing that resembles such a beautiful (I mean naughty) bird.
ReplyDeleteAlso I wanted to say that you leave the most lovely comments. Thank you, so much.
xx Lilli
Aghh! How devastating! Like you, I hate the way they just do this for entertainment..not life sustaining behavior at all, nasty things. I thought you got more of the black ones over your way?
ReplyDelete