Late yesterday afternoon there was a commotion in the tall banksia. Branches shook and wings flapped. There was growling, 'shouting' and, over the top of all this, the the loud and constant squawking of the LW adolescent. Even when I was standing beneath the tree I found it hard to work out what was going on. It was this - the two new babies were in the banksia and, on the same branch, was their older sibling. It was clear that neither parent wanted it there. Both of them called threateningly and growled at it. They tried to push it off, but it clung on upside-down, as in the photos. They pecked its feet. All of this time it was squawking - like a feed-me squawk but with more emphasis. As determined as the parents were to evict it, the LW was more determined to stay. On occasion it flew into the next tree, then straight back when they left. I did find it a bit upsetting, but I suppose it could have flown a little further away into another food tree - and they didn't attack it as they might have. This morning I saw that they were all happily in the banksia tree together, although the babies are also more mobile today and one has been following its parents into the bottlebrushes. They still look very 'babyish' though and seem to be quite different insofar as one of them - the one on the left in this photo - seems rather curious and active, exploring the world and tasting whatever's around. The other baby, so far, tends to sit next to trunk of the tree and move only when a parent arrives. undeniably cute and fun to watch and their tenacious brother or sister certainly knows how to hang on.
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December 2020
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