Francis Duggan Birds Poems

I see them often though not every day
The whistling blackbird sized birds of brown and gray
From wooded places never far away
Near where trees and bushes are they like to stay
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In years from now will the children of the future on warm evenings in the prime of Spring
On trees and bushes in groves, woods and parklands when flowers are blooming hear the wild birds sing
For a World without birds would be sad to live in and sad to learn that they are becoming rare
These are sad times for people who love Nature and who for Nature's creatures genuinely do care,
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Birds I see often though not every day
Galahs the cockatoos in feathers of pink and gray
Their calling in flight is quite pleasant to hear
And though not very shy of human beings they are cautious and hold a healthy fear
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The funeral birds known to some as whilst others do call them weerloo
But the name they are known to by many is the yellow tail black cockatoo
They live mostly on the dark seeds of the pine cones that they shred with their strong thick bills
Their familiar wee yu calls unmistakeable as they fly above the wooded hills
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Far north as the birds fly from here far away
It is cold and raining in Ireland today
And often noisy jackdaw in head feathers of gray
On the leafless birch tree has nothing to say
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John Howard the Prime Minister of Australia popular with conservative Australians and George W Bush the President of the U.S.A.
Invited him and his wife Janette to join him and his wife Barbara for a night and a day
With them in their Texas ranch such a compliment to them to pay
Still birds of a feather flock together wise people have been known to say.
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Their soft piping notes have a beautiful ring
And above the beach as they fly they do sing
With orange coloured bills and as dark as a crow
Their beauty goes with them to where-ever they go.
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Crows are very clever birds as some scientists tell us so
And you will not find a smarter bird than your average black crow
To their advantage they can use tools where some species of birds cannot live they thrive
And despite what some may think of them they know how to survive.
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When they feel hungry with their urge for meat
The birds of prey hunt other birds to eat
They even tackle and kill birds of them a greater size
In Nature few things do seem to surprise
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I like birds one ought not for to get them wrong
The familiar sort anyway even by song
The flute like notes of the Aussie magpies one should not mistake
To their songs every morning of the year i do wake
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Some birds distinctive in their chirp or song
Once heard you never seem to get them wrong
The magpie and the blackbird and pee wee
By voice alone familiar birds to me
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How can one complain on a day like today
The birds chirp and sing in the park by the bay
The sunshine with some warmth in it just before sundown
On a nice November evening in the sea side town
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Birds fly in small flocks to their roosting trees nearby
And the thunder is cracking in the gray evening sky
The currawongs all day in their songs forecasting rain
As forecasters of the weather they have got it right again
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It is not very often one does get them wrong
Most birds one does get to know by their chirping or song
Many of them from us do not live far away
We see and we hear them many times every day
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I wake to the voices of birds every day
Most of them by their songs or their chirps to their identity a give away
The voices of the house sparrows one could never mistake
They chirp all day long to nightfall from daybreak
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The black and white Australian feathered minstrels birds with a silvery bill
Small birds, amphibians and small animals they have been known for to kill
They are known as Australian magpies or otherwise piping shrike
As birds they are quite territorial without any real look alike
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Medium sized black and white birds I see and hear every day
Pee wee pee wee the tune they mostly play
True feathered Australians of them one can say
Different to most other birds in every way
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Familiar birds where i live since i see them every day
New holland honeyeaters in feathers of black, gold and gray
Nectar eating small birds and of them one can say
That they are quite aggressive and from their territory try to chase other small honeyeaters away
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No mercy to weakly young lambs they do show
The kind of bird hated by sheep farmers the silver back crow
Who of them do not have any kind word to say
They pluck out the eyes of frail young lambs and leave them to die in a slow and painful way
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The sun is not out hidden in clouds of gray
It has rained overnight and more rain on the way
In the Yarra Ranges quite typical weather for late Autumn and May
But in the Yarra Ranges the bellbirds are singing in Birdsland today
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Since i do hear and see them every day
I know of some birds just a little one might say
And though my wonder of them only grow
Little of their ways in truth i can claim to know
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Some birds by their sound they are not hard to know
The call of the pee wee the caw of the crow
And the flute of the magpie one often does hear
The bird who does sing every day of the year
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Though some birds i do know by sight and their chirping and song
On bird recognition i am often wrong
Though i have been interested in wild birds since i was a boy
And learning about them today i enjoy
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They are birds i do regularly see and do hear
And they sing every day the twelve months of the year
Familiar to many and familiar to me
The dainty black and white magpie larks the birds who sing pee wee
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The dry hills of South Belgrave from days of warm weather the color of hay
And few birds are singing in Birdsland today
And from the wood on the hill on the old decaying trees
The bell like chirps of the bellbirds is floating in the breeze
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Once you see them and hear them singing you never get them wrong
The eastern yellow robins birds with the ticking song
Of unders mostly yellow and back and wings and head and tail blue gray
They are birds i do see often though not every day
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We get to know birds by sight or by sound
And the natural environment is healthy where bird life abound
Birds losing their natural habitat due to human greed
And the place with few birds is a poor place indeed
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Their songs and their colors to their identity a give away
The beautiful birds i do see and do hear every day
The magpie the bird with the beautiful flute like song
By sight or by sound one cannot get him wrong
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Peeowit pee wee is all they ever say
The magpie larks ihear and see every day
Dainty black and white birds of town parks and countryside
Mud nest builders known and loved Australia wide
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Those who can be cruel to birds and animals to people can be cruel
The cruel streak that is in them to their brutality gives fuel
The evil bubbling in them is all out of control
They lack in the warmth of love with darkness of the soul
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You get to know birds you do not get them wrong
The most of them distinctive in their chirps or their song
The most of them familiarized with you do know by sight
And they are quite recognizable even whilst in flight
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Their voices remain with me from places far away
And in my flights of fancy I hear them sing today
The blackbird and the robin the throstle and the wren
The one with a loud song for a tiny bird sang in the furzy glen
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The more I learn of birds the more my wonder of them grow
And I come to realize how little about them I do know
And though I recognize many by their chirp or their song
On bird recognition I've often been wrong
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Most birds by their voices one cannot get wrong
The chirpings of crimson rosellas the call of the pied currawong
The laughter of the kookaburra the magpie's flute like song
To each individual bird species their own voice belong
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In their breeding Season birds have their borders to defend
And their own kind to them they don't treat as a friend
'Tis not of a sense of joy or for love of the Spring
But for to proclaim his borders that the male bird does sing
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I envy the migratory birds their freedom from Country to Country they fly
Their wings take them to distant places they travel thousands of miles by sky
Their life span is a brief span but they travel far and wide
Above the timeless oceans and miles of countryside
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Though in material things lacking spritually never poor
And I felt joy just listening to the birds of Annagloor
Sing in the groves and hedgerows when Spring was in her prime
The happy memories with me despite the toll of time,
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All eagles are large birds of prey they usually kill to eat
Though like vultures do from carrion they eat the rotting meat
They cannot digest seeds or grain they soar in light of day
Above the landscape gazing down on their look out for prey.
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Of late I've seen birds such as magpie larks, gulls and magpies
On the ocean foreshore or Nature strip of the street
With only stumps where their legs should be
Or walking lame with very sore feet.
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Nature's wild birds are chirping on sunlit bushes and trees
On what is a warm enough day of twenty nine degrees
In marvellous weather for flying insects the buzzing of flies and bees
And there is a certain freshness in the freshening Summer breeze
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The currawongs sing in the wood over there
They cannot be mistook for their familiar air
They call karrawang flying from tree to tree
You know them by their song before them you do see.
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They go to sleep at nightfall and wake at daybreak still they are not shackled to time
And though their life span compared to ours is much shorter they have inspired the poets to rhyme
With no concept of death it would seem and if you don't know of death then death you don't fear
Though 'tis known they crawl into cover when they know that their end is near.
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The birds sing in the wood by Clara Mountain
And build their nests in early days of Spring
And it won't be long now till their eggs will hatch out
And their first young of the Season take to wing.
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On the gum trees at Birds Paddock crested cockies squawk and call
And the magpies flute their sweetest notes as shades of darkness fall
And the kookaburras laughing, laughing all of their cares away
At Birds Paddock in Tecoma in the gloaming of the day.
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I love the birds the wildborn birds are free
Their roof the clouds their house is every tree
With the environment they live in harmony
Whilst man is the environment's enemy.
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The birds already nesting and Spring not far away
And white backed magpie fluting long before dawn of day
And territorial spur winged plover above his breeding ground
Is calling in the darkness as he flies around and round.
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House sparrows, yellow hammers and chaffinches
I saw them north of Napier yesterday
Europe man brought their ancestors to New Zealand
Long years ago from places far away.
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They feed on ripened fruits of mistletoe
And spread the parasite where'er they go
Their droppings on the branches germinate
And mistletoe in this way they create.
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Were I a bard and had I a way with words
I'd sing a song of the apostle birds
Of how they stay together love and live
Few humans have in them such love to give.
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They mostly like to hide from watcher eye
But today around the thicket verge they fly
And utter forth their squeaky warning cry
The white browed scrub wrens have their young nearby.
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