Corella party on the road

I was driving to Castlemaine for a dental appointment this afternoon, along a beautiful country lane, soaking up the autumn sunshine, and listening to Eckhart Tolle on my car radio via my ipod (had to throw that in, didn't I), when I spotted a flock of Corellas by the roadside, the crowd spilling over to the road. It's common to see them on the pastures, snacking on the grasses, but on the road? I slowed down as I approached them, thinking they'd fly away, but they stayed. I drove right up to them, and stopped the car. I'd have to run them over if I kept driving.

So gorgeous! They just looked at me and I looked at them. Maybe they could sense my Corella-lover energy; maybe our Kokola the Corella at home had told them about us (well, there's all that squawking and yelling at dusk from Kokola to his Corella friends). My delight was shortlived, as a car soon came from the opposite direction and interrupted our mutual gazing; the other car had to come to a stop too, and then the Corellas flew off, in a flutter of white. But they didn't go far, stopping on the other side of the road this time.

Tutti actually talked to me today - not in words. He saw me bring in Kokola's seed container to refill in the pantry, and he cheeped and cheeped in his gorgeous trilling cheep. I thought he wanted to be taken to visit Pepi. He looked at me & climbed up to his seed container, took a seed & dropped it back, then looked at me. Ah! Sorry Tutti, I have not yet refreshed your seeds today. I took the container & went into the pantry, and Tutti flew to my shoulder to supervise. Once I'd put the seed container and water container back into the cage, Tutti promptly climbed up to his food & started eating, eating, eating hungrily. I was suprised, he'd never so directly communicated to me before! I then went upstairs to bring the vacuum cleaner down, and he cheeped and cheeped anxiously at me, as if to ask me not to go away while he was eating. He stopped cheeping when I came downstairs again with the vacuum cleaner, and didn't mind at all that I started vacuuming round his cage, as he was too busy enjoying his food.