Colour and distraction

I know I have "raved on" about the birds visiting my home previously but I cannot get enough of them! My ears are so used to their high pitched screaming that their din does not worry me any more - unless I am trying to have a conversation with someone or answering the phone! My last photo of the Lorikeets was of them during rain when their feathers were all dull so it is only right an proper that I should show how they really look!
It seems a shame that the name "King Parrot" should be given to a bird that only has two colours to show off while these superb and showy birds are mere "subjects" with a most incredible ornithological name "Thrichoglossus Haemotodus" (fortunately not known by most of us humans), so it is a good thing that we have given them a good old Ozzy name "Rainbow Lorikeet". Most of our common bird names are so obvious that if you say "Oh look there is a little finch with red eye brows" you will not be surprised if the bird book tells you that it is a "red Browed Finch"!!!! I was to begin with - but have got used to it!
Take another look at the Rainbow Lorikeets - can you see the one hanging upside down from the wire? and the one on this side standing sideways and reaching in for food? They are having a really fun time on that wire cage. The big Sulphur Crested Cockatoos (white cockatoos with a sulphur yellow crest!) are too big to get in to the feed. This is why we put the cage there. The cockatoos would, when they have finished eating, toss the dish off the feeder to the ground below. (We are on the first floor, not the ground floor in this pic, so they are banned from the feed dish!)
Every morning we would get between twenty and fifty of these lorrikeets but I always put out the same amount of diluted raw sugar - 1 litre - and four slices of white bread. Sometimes it takes a bit longer to disappear but the trees planted around the house include lots of native flowering varieties so they move on to those and get a more balanced diet. The sugar is only to draw them into the garden, the main feed is actually in the garden.
This morning I was racing around getting stuff ready for our monthly photo and video get -together. I have organised an email group of enthusiasts (and "boy" are they enthusiastic) who exchange both photos to set topics and make short videos so once a month those of us who live in this area gather to watch the videos that have been posted to us as well as videos made by local members. Anyway..... I was racing around getting ready for our day when I chanced to see a visitor on one of my roses. I dropped everything and raced upstairs to get the camera with one of my u-beaut new ND filters screwed in place and whereas once I would have reached for the spray can I nowadays reach for the Nikon or the Olympus!
Here is my visitor.....
Once I had my hopper's picture "in the can" I was once again free to race around and get things ready! I just hope he isn't going to grow to be a huge locust and gobble up all my plants. I forgot to squash it!
AJ