Squawk-birds are unusual and very rare. Most people think they’re extinct but that’s not true.
There are lots of them living in Ballyyahoo because Ballyyahoo is the only place on earth that provides the unique type of environment squawk-birds need in order to keep on squawking.
If you went to Ballyyahoo you’d soon learn that the squawk birds love to squawk for hours on end.
Squawk-birds are notorious thieves and they are extremely fast at stealing food from people’s hands.
They have even stolen Sergeant Sid’s sandwiches – so you have to be careful with food around Ballyyahoo especially gooseberry jam sandwiches.
Squawk-birds love gooseberry jam sandwiches and if the gooseberry jam is home-made from Ballyyahoo gooseberries, they will follow you to your house and steal that as well!
THE BALLYYAHOO BOG-WORM
Of course, they don’t just eat stolen food.
Like most birds, Squawk-birds also enjoy a juicy worm but Squawk-birds are very fussy and they only eat one particular type of worm.
The worm they love is called the Ballyyahoo bog-worm.
This is an unusual and extremely rare type of worm and surprisingly enough it can only be found wiggling its way through the Ballyyahoo bog.
But, whatever you do, don’t go looking for the Ballyyahoo-bog-worm in the Ballyyahoo bog because some people say The Ballyyahoo bog is also home to the Ballyyahoo banshee!
It’s not easy to get a close-up photograph of a squawk-bird because if they see you coming they fly away.
They are much faster than all other birds and are inclined to gang up and pelt you with tin cans if you get too close.
However, there are a few pictures around Ballyyahoo if you know who to ask and where to look.
This picture below is called ‘Squawk-birds On A Branch Over Ballyyahoo Bog,’ and was painted by Ballyyahoo’s very own famous artist – the one and only, Matilda Annabel O’Reilly.
GOBDAWS AND EEJITS
Everyone calls Matilda Annabel O’Reilly, Mat the hat because she always wears a beret hat.
She says it’s so everyone can tell the difference between real artists like herself and people who just think they’re artists, but who are really only gobdaws and eejits who don’t know one end of a paintbrush from another.
SQUAWK-BIRDS AND THEIR SOLAR HEATED NESTS.
Squawk-birds often form large gangs and spend the whole day sitting on telephone wires spying on the world below them.
They do this so they can spot any tin cans worth stealing and also so they can find good hiding places to stash their stolen cans.
They use the tin cans to build solar heated nests and they stick them together using bits of chewing gum they find on the roads and inside the old post box.
They have to build solar heated nests because if they didn’t, they would simply freeze to death!
You see the squawk-birds have got the coldest hearts of all birds, so cold they can never keep warm without the help of their tin can solar heaters.
Squawk-birds treasure tin cans and they will do anything to get them and keep them.
Here are some of their secret stashes of tin cans I found when I was out squawk-bird spotting.
Squawk-birds are also very fussy about where they build their nests.
They won’t build a nest on any old rooftop – they’re quite choosy about where they live.
In fact, they only build their nests on the rooftops of houses where noisy people live.
Squawk-birds like noisy people and there are two reasons for this – one is because they like noise, and the other is because they don’t like the sound of their own squawking, so they need loud noise to drown it out.
SQUAWK-BIRDS ON THE ROOF
If you find a pair of squawk birds living on top of your house and want to get rid of them, all you have to do is turn the sound down on your telly and tell everyone to be quiet.
Mind you, you don’t have to worry about that – you’re never going to find Squawk-birds living on your roof, are you? Unless you move to Ballyyahoo!
If you enjoyed reading about the Squawk-birds you will probably enjoy reading about what happened when Sergeant Sid got Squawked.
MORE CHILDREN’S STORIES FROM BALLYYAHOO
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