Living in such a wonderfully rural location means our neighbors are either quite a ways away ( in some cases, rarely there), or not human. The neighboring cattle love to come visit Resi when we walk. But the noisiest, and nosiest, neighbors we have are the lorakeets. Adorable, noisy, large flocks of little green parrots. Evidently they do extraordinary damage to peach orchards. So far nothing to the olive trees. Except make it very noisy in the Picual.

The neighboring 17 hectares has a small eucalyptus grove that sits on a corner which points into the Picual. There’s a flock of lorakeets that live there. This time of year they hang out at their nests a lot – large, multi-leveled nests that look like large bundles of sticks.

Usually the nests is all you see. You can hear the gossipy cocktail hour no matter where you are. But actually getting to see the neighborhood gossips? That’s harder. It doesn’t help that they blend in so well with the eucalyptus leaves.

Often you can catch a glimpse of them hanging upside down from one of the various levels of the nests. Or the flock taking flight. Catching them just sitting required quite a few trips past with a camera!

The lorakeets appear to fit so well into the landscape here you’d never know that not only were they imported, they are considered invasive.