Years ago I found grounded, a dead bird,
Stiff and cold. My damp palm swallowed its whole
Strangeness — mine to learn of a fowl dead.
Exquisite bird, miniature creature,
Said new to me. Unrecognised, Geoffrey
Enunciated, “A spotted pardalote.”
Time ticked slowly. Home – facelift begun.
A midget bird flew in nearby tree tops
Swooped low to the foundations busily
Constructing a home. Weird bird nesting in
The dark earth, unique, beautiful creature.
Absolute unto land, nests low — lives high.
Up in the eucalyptus — eating lerps.
Its forty spots endangered by mankind
Forever. Denuded ecology
Awful progress a threat to extinction.
Birds of Victoria was a first bird book of Andrew’s in 1974. In 2020 Professor John Woinarski of Charles Darwin University predicts the life of the Spotted Pardalote is endangered.
Inshore Cassandra 