Tag Archives: birds

Message from Mr. Ostrich by James Aitchison

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“It’s wrong!  It’s wrong!”

the ostrich said.

“I never, never

bury my head!

If I did

how could I see?

You mustn’t believe

such things about me.”

Teacher’s note: Ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand.  When trouble approaches, they lie low and press their long necks to the ground.  Mostly, ostriches escape danger by running at up to 72 km/h.  The world’s heaviest bird, they are also the world’s largest, fastest flightless bird, capable of killing predators such as lions and humans with a kick.

A Bird Unique by Margaret Pearce

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Hoo hoo hoo, and he haw hay
laughed the Kooka on his way.
After him the Magpies chased
winging past in reckless haste.
What was it that the Kooka heard
to cause the Magpies get so stirred?
An ornithologist rushed to meet
a Magpie walking on two sore feet.
‘I’m scared to fly,’ the Magpie wailed.
‘They laughed at me because I failed.’
He then limped on, a bird unique,
an unhappy agoraphobic freak.

Goose On The Loose by James Aitchison

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Hey, hey, the goose got away,

down the street

on its two webbed feet!

“Honk, honk! Out of my way

I want to do my shopping today!”

(Teacher’s note: Apart from flock, what other collective nouns apply to geese? It all depends where they are.  Geese on the ground are a gaggle, or if they are flying, a skein, a trip or a team.  If flying in formation, they’re a wedge.  Geese flying close together are a plump.  Some other choices: a chevron, a nide, a lag, a sord, and the poet’s favourite, a christmas of geese!)

Image courtesy Pixabay

A Murder of Crows by James Aitchison

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I saw a tree

full of crows,

crows in rows,

rows and rows. 

How many crows? 

Heaven knows!

(Teacher’s note: The collective term for a group of crows is a murder, a horde, a hover, a mob, a parcel, a parliament, even a storytelling of crows.)

Photo by Alexander Savchuk from Pexels

Tree House by Jacinta Lou

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Home to birds and bugs.
Wasps, spiders, grubs and tree house.
Empty when wasps feed.

(In response to Prompt #5)

Image credit: Jacinta Lou

Three Fat Pigeons by Jeanie Axton

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Three fat pigeons

looking very needy,

waddled around a bakery

in central Coober Pedy.

Pecking at the crumbs

with not a worry in sight,

these three fat pigeons

have given up their flight. 

An interesting read about the pigeons who didn’t give up their flight!

https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101543770

Outside My Window by Jacinta Lou

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Outside my window
Black cockatoos
Walk on the grass
searching for bugs and worms after the rain.

Outside my window
currawongs hover, seeking space between cockatoos,
hungry for bugs and worms after the rain.

Outside my window
plovers land and take off again.
Too many others searching for bugs and worms after the rain.
No room for eggs here.

Outside my window, magpies chase away the larger birds.

They won the yard today.

(In response to prompt #2 What’s Outside Your Window?)

As this is Jacinta’s first contribution to Australian Children’s Poetry we thought you’d like to know a little bit about her:

I’m a writer living in the bush in southern Tasmania with my black pug, Bellatrix. When I’m not writing I look out my window to Kunanyi, Mount Wellington, and watch the many birds foraging in the trees and on the grass. I write for children and hope to publish picture books.

Fly-Away Winter by Celia Berrell

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The Arctic Tern
spends half a year
up in the Northern
Hemisphere.
But when the Summer’
almost gone
and cooler Autumn
comes along
this sea-bird’s instinct’s
very strong
and sends them South
in one big throng.
From North Pole
to Antarctica
they travel sixteen
thousand k’s
in order to
avoid the cold
and stay beneath
Sun’s warmer rays.
So do Terns learn
to turn like this
or is it simply
hit and miss?
No, no. The Terns
turn all together.
‘Cos one good turn
deserves another!

Find out more about the Arctic Tern here

Poem of the Day

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Yellow Jack

 

I have a pet canary,
I call him Yellow Jack.
He has white feathers on his wings
and yellow on his back.

I love my pet canary,
I feed him every day.
I put fresh seeds into his bowl;
he pecks them straight away.

My dearest pet canary,
I love to hear him sing.
He chirps and cheeps to me each day
and even more in spring.

My lovely pet canary,
I watch him day and night.
Today I watched him lay an egg.
Oops!
I think her name’s not right!

Kristin Martin

Poem of the Day

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Words and Birds

by Virginia Lowe

 

A queue of curious pelicans

A cue of queueious pelicans

The English language

Never ceases

To amaze

And amuse

 

Mother counted sixty four

swans and pelicans

on Lake Colac once

when I was a child

in the days

when the lake

was full

before

climate

change

hit.

 

  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #7

Prompt7

Virginia says: I wrote this poem for exactly the reasons given in the poem. The memory, and amusement at ‘curious’ and ‘queue’.