Many centuries ago when only indigenous tribes lived there Australia was a Land mostly of trees and on the parts of the Country where trees didn't grow grew scutch grass, it was a Land abundant with wild animals and birds, millions upon millions of animals such as kangaroos, possums, wallabies, koalas, wombats, echidnas, platypus etc etc and beautiful birds such as cockatoos, rosellas, whipbirds, lyrebirds, bowerbirds, kookaburras, magpies, crows, fairy wrens, honeyeaters, robins and millions of huge flightless birds cassowaries and emus,
The story that i am about to tell you concerns a sulphur crested cockatoo his name was Cocky, one very windy evening in late May Cocky did not leave with all of his friends as he usually did to return to their roosting place tall gum trees about a mile from the sea shore, he was very hungry so he decided to stay behind and eat some more seeds which he and the other cockatoos had been eating, it was nightfall as he flew towards the gum trees where his friends were, the power of the wind increased and Cocky felt himself blown out to sea panic seized his little heart and he squawked loudly for his friends to help him but of course his friends did not hear him as they were too far away, he struggled desperately for to fly against the wind but of course the wind blew too strong and exhausted he had to cease trying to fly against the wind and allow the gale to carry him further and further out to sea by dawn he felt very tired and he was miles from anywhere about mid morning the wind had subsided considerably and Cocky thought he saw what was land and he flew towards it but as he drew closer he found it was not land but a boat and Cocky had never before had seen a boat,
He flew above the boat and looked down into it in the boat were people and Cocky did not trust people and although he was very tired he dared not land on the boat as he feared the people might kill him and though he felt exhausted he followed the boat all day until dark and then under the cover of darkness he flew into the boat unnoticed, he hid in the corner of the boat behind boxes and with his head tucked beneath his wing slept soundly until he was startled from his sleep by enveloping human hands, he squawked loudly and tried to struggle free, he even bit into the man's hands with his powerful beak but it was to no avail as the man was too strong and he could not struggle free, the man put Cocky in a box and gave him pieces of raw meat to eat which Cocky did not like but nevertheless eat as he was famished with the hunger,
He spent days in the box on a diet of scraps of meat and water, from listening to the men talking amongst each other Cocky learned to speak a few words like hello and good day and one morning Cocky said hello to the man who had come to feed him and the man who had never before heard a bird talking was taken aback and he called out to all of his shipmates who immediately gathered around Cocky's prison a medium sized timber box with small timber door and four small holes which allowed air and light in but were too small for a bird the size of Cocky to escape through,
Cocky said hello and good day to all of the men who could only watch on and listen in amazement the men immediately summoned their captain and leader who on hearing the bird talking came to the conclusion that they must have imprisoned some sort of a feathered god and the captain who was of a very suspicious nature feared that the keeping of such a creature in captivity could bring ill luck on himself and his men and his boat gave orders for the immediate release of Cocky who on being released squawked loudly and shouted hello and good day as he flew away,
It felt strange for Cocky to again experience the freedom of the sky after having spent what seemed such a long term in captivity he flew westwards and had been flying for up to three hours when he saw in the distance what appeared to him to be land this time he hoped that he was right for if not and it turned out to be another boat he would prefer to die at sea than take the risk of again being taken captive,
As he flew nearer he could see that it was cliffs he was approaching and he gave a sigh of relief as he neared the cliffs he thought he was again back home in Australia but Cocky was wrong as he flew over the cliffs and headed inland he realized that he was not back home in Australia but in some foreign Country, there was less trees than there had been in Australia and the trees looked completely different no gum trees but oak, beech, birch, hawthorn, ash etc etc
trees he had never seen before and the grass seemed much greener than in Australia and there were cattle and sheep and horses creatures he had never seen before,
He perched on a beech tree for to rest awhile a flock of strange birds perched on an oak tree about twenty meters away
They were starlings and they took exception to the stranger in their midst they mobbed Cocky but he was able to fight them off there was plenty food for him to eat here and cocky enjoyed what was the first natural meal he had in what seemed ages to him.
He flew further inland for at least another two hours and as it was now almost dark Cocky perched on a poplar tree in a wooded area where he rested for the night and as he slept with his head tucked beneath his wing he had a beautiful dream he dreamed that he was back again in Australia with his lovely wife Cresty and their son Sulphur and their pretty daughter Katoo,
He was awakened by the sound of birdsong blackbirds and thrushes singing on trees nearby it was daybreak and Cocky was far from home in fact over twelve thousand miles, he was in Wales at the other side of the World, Cocky knew by the strange birds that lived in this strange Country that he must be a long way from home another difference was there seemed to be more human beings living here, he could see up to seven people walking down the valley within fifty meters of the tree he was on, already he had learned the hard lesson to stay clear of the human kind,
though this seemed a nice area for Cocky to stay in with trees and open Country as well so he decided to settle here for awhile at least nevertheless he felt very lonely as he pined for his family and his friends back home and beside the local birds did not like him as to them he was a stranger and they treated him as such and they surely would have killed him had he been smaller but they feared his powerful beak and claws and though they taunted and threatened him that was as far as they went,
He had been about a week in this valley when one morning a medium sized blackish gray bird that resembled a small crow flew up and perched on the same branch as he was on, Cocky braced himself for fight as he thought that this bird had come to challenge him but when he realized that this bird was of no threat to him he relaxed and in fact he found this bird to be very friendly and though she spoke in an accent similar to a crow her voice seemed softer and not as coarse the stranger introduced herself to Cocky and she told him that her name was Jacky and that she was from Ireland and that she like him was blown out to sea and this was how she came to Wales,
Jacky could not join any group as she was an outsider and the other jackdaws let her know it so Cocky and Jacky had a lot in common they both were in a foreign Country though Cocky was many miles further from home and they both had no friends and they both felt very lonely as the days went by they became firm friends and Cocky and Jacky had no more need to feel lonely as they had each other.
