At This Time Of Year Poem by Francis Duggan

At this time of year in South Eastern Australia the white backed magpies sing night and day
You hear them piping in the moonlight when brush tail possums in their cloaks of gray
Are fighting for to defend their borders on galvanize roofs and on trees
The noise of their snarlings is carrying through the quiet streets in the freshening breeze
In early Spring in South Eastern Australia the shrike thrush in light brown and gray
On bushes and trees in the Parkland pipes in the pale dawn of the day
And house sparrows the renowned chirpers build their nests of feathers and hay
And the beautiful song of the blackbird take the migrants to Lands far away
When Spring is in South Eastern Australia the migrant Northern waders on mudflats to be seen
Far from the cold shores of the Artic as far south as they've ever been,
Turnstone and sanderling great travellers they fly twelve thousand kilometres or more
To the coastal lands of South East Australia from their home by the far northern shore
At this time of year in South Eastern Australia the nesting birds whistle and sing
And everywhere looks lush and greener and wildflowers adorn the Spring.