The Prodigal Son - Welcome Home!
Hooray! Anyone who follows my photostream and the activities of feeding birds, mostly native Australian cockatoos called Galahs will know that we have our favourites, those amongst the number we identify by name because of their special visual or behavioural characteristics and/or we are able to feed by hand.
Pretty well at the top of that special heap are Wingman (front) and Mrs W (Wingman) who have been very regular visitors for three years now. Jenny got this shot this morning and we were over the moon to see him as we thought we had lost him.
Firstly, to recap, his name is Wingman (one day I will tell the long story about that name), because he has two bad wings, you can see the worst one, the right wing, that diminish his ability to fly as well as these birds can. They are masters. He has trouble getting lift and always flies in stages. He is married to Mrs W as they mate for life. He is a wonderful husband and partner, and up until more recent times they have always come together and go to the same location where they get their very own food dish which he protects like a gladiator.
In more recent times, they have been arriving up to four times per day.
And then about a week ago, nothing! We saw her a couple of times but not Wingman and we were terribly worried that we had lost him. I in particular have been devastated, as you may have guessed, I love them both dearly. Then yesterday, we thought we saw him arrive but not come down from the power lines over the back. And then finally this morning, he returned...oh what a relief. And during the busy morning, they returned several times. Oh, what a feeling indeed. We suspect they had kids this year and the change in behaviour has been mostly driven by the needs of nesting, fledging and being good parents.
The Prodigal Son - Welcome Home!
Hooray! Anyone who follows my photostream and the activities of feeding birds, mostly native Australian cockatoos called Galahs will know that we have our favourites, those amongst the number we identify by name because of their special visual or behavioural characteristics and/or we are able to feed by hand.
Pretty well at the top of that special heap are Wingman (front) and Mrs W (Wingman) who have been very regular visitors for three years now. Jenny got this shot this morning and we were over the moon to see him as we thought we had lost him.
Firstly, to recap, his name is Wingman (one day I will tell the long story about that name), because he has two bad wings, you can see the worst one, the right wing, that diminish his ability to fly as well as these birds can. They are masters. He has trouble getting lift and always flies in stages. He is married to Mrs W as they mate for life. He is a wonderful husband and partner, and up until more recent times they have always come together and go to the same location where they get their very own food dish which he protects like a gladiator.
In more recent times, they have been arriving up to four times per day.
And then about a week ago, nothing! We saw her a couple of times but not Wingman and we were terribly worried that we had lost him. I in particular have been devastated, as you may have guessed, I love them both dearly. Then yesterday, we thought we saw him arrive but not come down from the power lines over the back. And then finally this morning, he returned...oh what a relief. And during the busy morning, they returned several times. Oh, what a feeling indeed. We suspect they had kids this year and the change in behaviour has been mostly driven by the needs of nesting, fledging and being good parents.