canberrabirds

Little Hiawatha

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Subject: Little Hiawatha
From: "Geoffrey Dabb" <>
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 10:15:27 +1100
Have you noticed that for some weeks one of the Royal Spoonbills at Kelly Swamp has been sporting, quite distinctively, a single head plume? This would not be worth a comment, but for the length of time the solitary feather has persisted, despite storm and rain, and vigorous feeding and scratching by the bird concerned. I am reminded of the illustrations of (Amer)indians in childhood books - ranging from Peter Pan to a junior edition of Hiawatha - where I used to take great interest in the respective status of the male indians after being advised that this was signified by the number of feathers in the head-dress. An indian with only one feather could be expected to be only at the earliest, possibly probationary, stage of his career. However, this spoonbill seems to be quite a well-developed bird, so perhaps it is undergoing some kind of mature-age crisis in which it seeks out the trappings of its lost youth, perhaps a youth marked with hopes and promises now sadly unfulfilled.

               Geoffrey Dabb
email    :   
ph/fax   :   02 6295 3449

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