G'Day,
This morning I have been pottering around the house and yard. While I was out the back splashing some water around my plants I had a visit from a young Magpie. The other day the same little visitor came up to me warbling and looking straight at me so I reckoned he knew just what he was doing. He / she has learned to sing for his supper. If you charm those humans you know they will give you some easy food you know, you know.... He came right up to about 4 feet away from me and sat there looking straight at me warbling, cheeky little bloke, anyway it worked and he got a feed of crumbled bread and seed mixed through it. On the same morning the trees at the back of the house were filled with a dozen or more pied currawongs singing and calling to each other who must have been watching baby Maggie's antics and decided to come down and compete for the bread scraps I had put out, so my back yard was full of birds having a lovely time. I wonder if baby Maggie is one of the same little blokes that used to visit out the front and wait at the door for bread with his sibling and mother. Probably is. He most likely does the rounds of the neighbourhood getting food off all the humans. Mum trained him well didn't she. This little guy is definitely a survivor. Autumn must be a hungry time of year because the birds have been less numerous since spring last year and now there are heaps of visitors again.
I have also had visits regularly from female satin bower birds, I looked them up and found out what they were, I have not seen any males though, they are definitely more recognizable. The male bird is a beautiful glossy midnight blue, the female is olive and grey, brown with outlined feathers, both the male and female birds have startlingly bright blue eyes. I have not seen any males around but they must be there. During the week when I sit out at the back table to read the newspaper in the mornings I have seen 3 females in the yard. Satin bower birds are pretty spectacular. They are known for their strange mating habits and rituals. The male birds build large bowers on the ground out of grass and what ever else suits their fancy then the decorate the bower with blue things that they find to try to attract the best females to mate with. They dance and carry on as part of the mating ritual then the female builds her nest in a tree nearby and brings up her offspring. I put a blue plastic milk bottle top out the back a few days ago to see if they would take it, it is gone this morning. The female birds have eaten the fruit off the chilli plant I had on the back table and also the big succulent leaves off another plant. Hot stuff.
Baby galahs have been hanging aroud cheeky's cage this morning trying to get inside to eat his seed. The one I was watching this morning was very young and still has his dusky grey colouring and was not scared of humans yet, it waddled up to within just a few feet away from me. It was a little male, one was there yesterday which was a baby female. I put some seed around the cage for them and they came back to eat it as soon as I walked back to within what they must have felt was a safe distance for them.
I am also visited by lots of Galahs, some eastern rosellas, king parrots, crimson rosellas, top knot pigeons, pee wees, sparrows and other similar sized birds whose names I do not know, finches, wrens, sulphur crested cockatoos, grey butcher birds,wattle birds, and those unwelcome ferals, indian mynor birds. I love Canberra wild life.
There was a story in the newspaper yesterday that would be funny if it was not so scary. A panicked 2 meter kangaroo crashed through someones bedroom window and injured itself on Sunday morning early. The people were in bed at the time and did not know what had happened to them. It jumped on their bed and through the house into their little boys room leaving a trail of blood every where. The husband grabbed it in a head lock and wrestled it out of the house. So in today's paper there is a story about kangaroos in urban areas being a danger etc etc. There are thousands of them in Canberra. The suburbs are planned with bush areas and wildlife corridors all between then. It was bound to happen eventually I guess, excuse the pun, he he. They belong here.
The roos are quite a nuisance and very dangerous on the roads, especially at dusk and dawn when they are moving about feeding, you see dozens of them slaughtered beside the roads all the time from motor vehicle accidents.
Rufus, our Jack Russell dog has been barking and has been scared a few nights lately. When my son went out the other night he found a big possum in the back yard, so that must have been what was scaring him.
It is funny but the things I love about living in Canberra and give it some of its charm for me, are also the things that upset me. I guess that is the price we and the wild life pay for living together. We pay the price to repair our propery and cars, tehy pay the price with their lives and loss of habitat. It is worse for them. I would rather put up with a few problems than not have them live here amongst us though.
The diet I mentioned the other day has made me feel better. I am not being strict with it, as is usually my style, to my own detriment, but I have lost about 5 kg over the last month or so, so that is a bonus. Though I guess some of that should be attributed to my increased workload and the fact that I am not home at night to nibble because I am still working. I did not attempt the diet to loose weight but to try to feel a bit better and banish the latest annoying bout of thrush that I have been plagued with, that part of it has been successful, especially since the over the counter chemists medicines did not work on it.
That's all. Gotta go and do some more house work before I go to work this afternoon.
Bye
Love Linda.