Pair of ol' cockies.. HFF :)

Cockatoos, corellas, magpies, and 'noisy mynahs' congregate at the horse's feeding trough at the end of the day, to steal what they can, as Banjo comes up from the paddock for a his daily treat of carrot and a bit of grain.

 

I say 'old cockies', as they live such a long time!

Around 70/80 yrs in the wild and 120 in captivity… but I reckon they're far happier with the first option..

I've never seen a sad, scraggy one that's out in the natural.

They always look so robustly healthy and full of energy, I can't tell the difference between the young and older ones.

 

I chose this title because it reminds me of years ago when my mum would refer to elderly, wiry, weatherbeaten farmers as 'old cockies'.

She was born on a sheep station in 1929, and carried the affectionate or humorous euphemisms of rural culture from that era into my own childhood in the 60's.

 

This knickname however, seemed to embody a respect for the early Australian farmers, as the rural industry was only a few family generations young by that time, therefore their knowledge of the land was borne out of sheer hard yakka and their own experience of a climate far different from their grandfathers' countries of origin.

 

There's many words that I just don't hear anymore, the old language is in deed dying out with the older generations, so I'm going record what I can remember with my pics.

 

Anzac Day is coming up this week, and knowing how much WW1 impacted on the rural communities, maybe I'm getting a little nostalgic.

 

Anyway, here's a pair of happy cockies on the farm fence, so HFF to my friends x :)

Taken at twilight, sooc..

 

Done