Flock

One of our special thrills at the end of the day is to watch huge V-formation flocks of Australian White Ibis descending onto our luminous lagoon, where they roost for the night in the Swamp Paperbarks, keeping company with Black Swans and Blue-billed Ducks.

            This ibis shimmer is flight fragmented.
            It bears a resemblance to those armfuls of cinders
            Charcoal lines from burnt trees, bush-branches.
            Think ‘fire in the heavens’ and some art nut
            (a painter, a poet or something flightier)
            has paper-wrapped the silhouettes
            hauling the birds in
            on their dishevelled erotic wings.
            Barry Hill, from Lines for Birds

Flock
Short Purple-flag (Patersonia fragilis) outer seed cases,Yacca (Xanthorrhoea semiplana ssp. tateana) seeds, linen thread and bookbinder’s gum on canvas
75 x 75 cm framed, image diameter 47 cm
Framed in white moulding, with a white circular cut matt, internal side spacers, glass and hangers
SOLD – Private collection, South Australia

Detail view from an angle: