2 Poems ... Channel-billed Cuckoo and The Koala

Author Notes
The channel-billed cuckoo and other birds migrate from New Guinea and Indonesia around March/April to settle in many parts of Northern Australia and New South Wales where they mate, laying the eggs in other birds, (currawongs, koels, crows etc,) nests. The C-b cuckoo can grow up to 66 cm. They are generally white and pale grey, with some black colouring. They're mating calls can be heard long into the night and early hours during summer. They are commonly known as 'storm' birds.The birds migrating north at the end of summer have to cross the Torres, (pronounced 'Torris,') Strait to reach New Guinea.

Channel-billed Cuckoo

 You are the largest cuckoo in the world,
 At 60 centimetres you‘re quite long,
 You’re parasitic habits come unfurled,
 Your procreation skills make your swan-song.
                         --oo--

 So Cuckoo male distracts crow from her nest
 And Mama cuckoo, when she thinks it best
 Can lay her egg in poor crow’s neat abode,
 Crow parents soon will feed new daily load

 On weary crow’s pained wings the cuckoo babe
 Begs food from mother half his giant size,
 Into the fray the hapless crow will wade
 Returning o’er and o’er, no longer wise

 Her own dear babes have hungered now to death
 Unable to sustain a starving breath,
 They’re pushed aside by giant baby mate
 Who’s building strength to cross the Torres Strait

 Back home to warmer winter tropic clime
 Young cuckoo bird flies off with fam’ly clan,
 But then when autumn’s chill says ‘now, it’s time’
 Back south he’ll fly to prove that he’s a ‘man.’

 That virile young cuckoo chooses a patch
 to call his own, while wooing his new ‘catch,’
 Australia makes a fine place he can breed
 And instinct has equipped him for his need.                       
                       --oo--

 And, glancing up, we’ll see that cruciform
 Display of stiffened cuckoo bird in flight
 He’s off for recreation in the North
 No more we’ll hear his ‘quornking’ in the night.





THE KOALA.
I bet you want to be like me and sleep all day in yon gumtree,
The view I've got is great to see; it's all around way down from me,
I have soft fur, blue-grey or brown, for hours and hours asleep I'm found.
I only want to be left safe, and not forced down from tree to ground.
     
Herbivorous marsupial, 9 kg in weight,
I very rarely take a drink, I don't need to hydrate.
‘Cause up in fork of eucalypt, (gum tree'll do for you)
I've all the fluid that I need from foliage I chew.

On thick dense furry pad I sit with balance quite superb,
September through to March I bellow loudly to be heard!
When thirty-five more days have passed our 'joey' will be born,
We hope he'll live despite the fact much forest now has gone.

The tourists love us most of all, and photos sell so well,
So some of us now live in zoos for all to 'show and tell,'
I come from underneath the globe in Aussie land down there,
'Koala,' that is what I am, but not koala BEAR!!
                  
A/Notes
Due to clearing of land for agriculture and housing, 80% of the koala's habitat has been destroyed.
September to March is the mating season, but koalas bellow all year round to warn off other koalas. Their calls are quite loud and are mainly heard at dusk, night and dawn.
Koalas don't usually need to drink unless there is a severe drought or heat wave.
'Show and tell' is what little children do in school these days, instead of bringing news.