At 03:31 PM 24/01/2010, you wrote:
In somewhat similar vein I quote from Slater,
?If galahs were rare they would be seen for what
they are ?extremely lovely birds.?
John et al,
When my wife and I honeymooned in Hawaii nearly
14 years ago we were in a Walmart (for those who
don't know, Walmart is like Kmart on Steroids,
with a full nursery, pet store, hardware store
etc all built in to it. Amazing place!!) and
looking at the birds they had for sale. We had
to chuckle at the prices..... a Macaw was US$1500
(which seemed ridiculously cheap.... I wouldn't
like to think what they'd be worth here <grin>),
a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo was $1800, and the
most expensive bird for sale was a "Pink and Grey
Umbrella Parrot" aka a Galah. That was $2500,
not that far off twice the cost of the Macaw. It
just goes to show how something common in one
place can be rare and unusual in another. LOL
Then of course we had the guy wandering around
Waikiki with a Macaw on one shoulder and a mangey
looking Sulphur Crested Cockatoo on the other,
pestering tourists to have a photo taken with a
bird on their shoulder. He heard our accents and
said that we would of course be wanting the
Sulphur Crested for a picture...... it has not a
great example of the species as I mentioned, but
all that I thought of was "why would I want a
picture from here of a bird that wakes me up most
mornings and that we see or here nearly every
day. The Macaw on the other hand was something
amazing and I probably would have paid the money
to get that close to one...... but he lost his
chance. I still laugh about it now, nearly 14
years later. I still can't work out why he
thought I'd want a pic with the SC, unless he
just thought that it was a piece of home or something.
Anyway, enough reminiscing. Sorry for wandering a little off topic.
Cheers.
Paul T.
Higgins, ACT
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