The Parrot breeding season is in full swing and the Echo team have so much news to share. Nests across the island have welcomed beautiful white lora eggs and some of those eggs have already hatched. The wonder of romance and reproduction is the topic of today's tale, and so without further ado it is time to bring you Al and Sue's remarkable romance.
Everybody said Al and Sue were a lovely parrot couple. They were. Al was attentive to Sue's needs and made her feel safe. She was shapely and didn't talk too much. Other loras wanted what they had. Al and Sue were a little old fashioned in that they didn't value material wealth. They didn't want for a flat screen TV or ridiculous SUV. They knew these things didn't bring happiness. They had each other and so they had everything, well, almost everything. Al and Sue longed to have a family.
Being loras Al and Sue were vastly intelligent. They had studied some history and they knew that the early human colonisers of their island had chopped down virtually all the trees. The beautiful Lignum Vitae had been desired for it's dense wood and the silvery barked Satinwood provided good timber. These trees had also provided nest cavities for lora families. Sadly there were now so few of these big old trees that only a handful of lora pairs got to have families.
Al and Sue's growing urge to have a family had bothered them for a few years now. They stayed together because they new in the long run it would pay off. They were, of course, familiar with the good work of Dr Rowan Martin, which showed that more co-ordinated lora pairs have greater reproductive success. Al and Sue also ticked each other's boxes and they just felt they should be together.
At first monogamy had felt restrictive but it was clear to them that it was the right thing. Al and Sue knew they were Amazons not Eclectus parrots. Naturally Dear Reader, you will be aware that when sailors first arrived on Papua New Guinea they thought the bright red female eclectus and the deep green male eclectus were different species. More recently it has been found that female eclectus parrots will fight to the death to defend their nest site. This makes perfect sense when you realise that in the breeding season they may be attended to by up to 9 male parrots. Male eclectus parrots equally have their fun and may visit 5 or more females.
Being a perfect male Amazon parrot Al knew his way around and didn't ever have to ask Sue to read a map. On the morning of their great surprise they were in a lush area of vegetation they knew well. This being the case, it was indeed a great surprise to find a perfect nest where previously, Al was quite certain, there had not been a nest or even a tree. He couldn't quite explain it because of course he didn't know Echo's conservationists had created this nest box for loras such as himself and Sue. In that moment these details were, however, irrelevant. They had found a nest!
Spring was in the air and suddenly hormones were surging through Al's feathered body. After all those years of waiting he and Sue would finally get to have a family. Sue could hardly believe it. The timing was perfect. There had been so much rain in the winter, there was food everywhere and both she and Al were in perfect condition. After only a brief inspection of the nest Al and Sue looked at each other. They didn't have to say a thing. There was an intense and palpable tension. They had wanted this for so long. Finally, they would get to shag.
Dear Reader you would be forgiven for thinking this was going to be a tale of a long and creative courtship. However, the remarkable feature of Al and Sue's romance was in fact the brevity of their courtship and the rapidity with which they became more intimate. After but a moment of tail fanning and purring Al and Sue were at it. So happy were they to finally release the tension they had felt for so long, they threw caution to the wind. They shagged in the nest box, they shagged on top the nest box and they even shagged in the tree tops.
Given the rampant nature of the romance it was somewhat predictable that they would be caught in the act. In that moment Al was again grateful to be an Amazon parrot and not in this case a Vasa Parrot. Al had heard stories about those black parrots from Madagascar and although he envied the male's pseudo penis, he didn't like the idea of becoming locked together with Sue as mating Vasas do. Sue was thinking similar things, although of course the images running through her head were even more outlandish. She was glad Al was the loving Mr Parrot he was and not an Argentine Blue-bill. Dear Reader you would be forgiven for having over looked the fact that in relation to its body size this unassuming looking duck has the longest penis of any vertebrate. The Blue-bill's penis can, rather incredibly, be the same length as the bird itself. What is more like other ducks the Blue-bill's penis has spines, a bristled tip and is the eye-watering shape of a corkscrew.
Dear Reader as you were probably not expecting to be thrust into the world of duck penises it may be best to end this tale here. We shall save the wonderful outcome of Al and Sue's remarkable romance for a future post on this blog. Please do be careful when searching for images of duck penises online! And while you are at the computer you really should have a look at the latest news on Echo's facebook page http://www.facebook.com/echobonaire.org
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