For the birds

Drawing 491

Drawing 492

Drawing 493

Drawing 494

Drawing 495

I am obsessed with birds at the moment (Duh!). The owly faces have morphed into Celtic-inspired birds with curvy necks and big beaks. I am still seeing birds everywhere - on Friday on my way to work three pelicans soared over the road, flying so low that the van in front of me
braked; they were probably only a couple of metres overhead. The pelicans were headed, unromantically, for the landfill beside the road, which attracts birds in vast numbers. This morning I saw three pairs of native ducks on the pond at the University, making their odd honking non-quacks. When I reached my car, there was another cheeky native bird (whose name I know not) feasting on the dead bugs on my windscreen, not at all alarmed by me opening the door a bare two feet away. I let him take his time and finish cleaning up the glass.

It has been suggested that perhaps this sudden awareness of numbers of birds in my life is due to the raven festering away in my yard, and they are perhaps biding their time whilst plotting revenge. I hasten to assure all concerned that the deceased is being treated with the greatest of reverence, and I monitor his reduction to his constituent elements with care. I shall treasure the gift of his bones.