Silvereyes Poem by Francis Duggan

Through parks and rural town gardens they fly from shrub to bush to tree
And through the days of Winter in small flocks them you see
Buff to grey birds with silvery eye rings and about warbler size
Familiar in the countryside the grey breasted silvereyes.

Last Spring by path that leads through crown land a tiny nest I see
Cup shaped and bound with spider webs on low branch of sapling tree
It was a silvereyes nest her four bean sized eggs were blue
And she chirped in worry for her eggs as from tree to tree she flew.

Each day from Mother Nature a lesson for to learn
And as I walked off down the crown land path to her nest she did return
And I left her for to hatch to life her tiny family
But the memory of such beauty will long remain with me.

The sky is rather overcast with dark clouds through the gray
And the rain comes down in drizzles on a typical Winter's day
And the temperatures have plummeted to a cool eight degrees
And the silvereyes are searching for nectar and insects on the trees.

The fruit farmer in Autumn for them doesn't use words such as cute
As they damage his fruit crop when they peck holes in his fruit
When he shoots at them with his air gun to the next orchard they fly
But it's one of the laws of Nature if you don't eat you die.

In park and rural town garden these birds I often see
In small flocks in the Winter they fly from bush to tree
With a ring of silver feathers around their eyes buff and grey birds of warbler size
And familiar in the countryside the grey breasted silvereyes