Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Lane Cove National Park

Earlier this week my wife and I had a few hours free from grand-children caring duties. We drove the short distance from our son’s home where we are staying. About 15 minutes later we were in the Lane Cove National Park, just a short distance north of the CBD of Sydney.

In the national park there are numerous delightful picnic areas next to the Lane Cove River. We choose one of them to have our lunch   (see photo below).

Our picnic area in the Lane Cove National Park

As my wife starting eating her lunch she had a close encounter with a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (see photo below). I didn’t manage a close-up photo because I was about 50 metres away taking photos of other birds. The cockatoo decided that my wife’s lunch was worthy of investigating, and landed on the table next to her. My wife quickly covered up her sandwiches!

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo on our picnic table

Later I was able to catch up with the cockatoo and another one as they were also having lunch on some nearby flowers (see photo at the top of this post).

Writing prompts: close encounters with birds:

• Write about a close encounter you had with a bird.
• Describe a time a bird snatched food from your picnic table.
• Write a poem about the pet bird or wild birds in your life.
• Do some research about the birds in your local area. Write an article about your discoveries and observations and submit it to a local newspaper.
• Take some photos of birds in your garden and write a caption for each.
• If you write a blog, write about your close encounters and include photos of the birds seen.
• Write about time you had a sudden, unexpected or frightening experience of a close encounter with a bird.
• Have you ever found an injured or dead bird? Write about your feelings. Tell how you helped the injured bird. What happened to the dead bird?

Good writing.