Rain Birds by Harriet McKnight

Author:Harriet McKnight
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Schwartz Publishing Pty. Ltd

One of the birdwatchers was waiting for Arianna back by the vehicles. She had a puffy face and was thick around the middle.

‘It was over there, about twenty yards away,’ she said, brandishing her finger in a south-easterly direction. ‘A female, I think.’

She was dressed all in khaki and canvas. Even her scrunchy was camouflage. ‘I’m Maureen,’ she added.

Arianna recognised her from the petrol station in town.

‘Did you collect the band number?’ she asked, getting out a notebook and pen to jot down the information. ‘Did you get the pattern of the coloured bands?’

‘I can’t see that far, dear,’ Maureen said, though the word was far from an endearment in her mouth. ‘And my hands don’t stay still enough for me to get a good look through the binos.’

‘How do you know it was a female, then?’.

Maureen sighed exaggeratedly. ‘I’ve lived here all my life. I know a bloody black cockatoo. And this one was acting pretty strange – do you want to hear why or not?’

She pursed her lips together. ‘Yes.’

‘Well, it was screaming for a start, not a usual cockatoo screech but real long and high-pitched.’

‘Were there any other birds around?’ she asked. ‘The mate or the rest of the flock?’

‘I didn’t see any other birds the whole day.’

‘Where was it exactly? High up in the tree?’

‘In one of the lower branches, about halfway up the trunk. And you want to hear something else? It was flapping its wings a lot.’

‘Vertically to the ground or diagonally like it was trying to take off?’

‘Vertically. Just flapping them gently, feathers all ruffled. It didn’t want to go anywhere. And do you know the oddest thing?’

She glanced up from writing her notes; noticed that Maureen was imperceptibly bouncing up and down on the spot.

‘It was whacking itself against the branch. It was whacking its head against the wood.’

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