I See Them Every Morning Poem by Francis Duggan

I see them every morning in the early morning sky
And they pierce the silence of the dawn with grating harsh like cries
The sulphur crested cockatoos towards feeding paddocks fly
What's grating to the human ear is beauty to the eye.

A beautiful white cockatoo with palish yellow crest
And in Spring and early Summer in hole in tree they nest
Two white oval shaped eggs are laid and on rare ocasions three
And the average life span for these birds a half a century.

On roosting trees in fading light they make a lot of noise
And they jostle for good feeding perch as the moon begin to rise
They squabble for good sleeping spot on high branch of gum tree
But most times they tend to agree and live in harmony.

These noisy big white cockatoos in large flocks congregate
And i see them every morning and in the evening late
And though they don't have pleasant song to sing it is breath taking sight
To watch them fly towards feeding grounds in the early morning light