Sunday, February 6, 2022

Birds Reign

Oh this rain is wonderful and such a welcome reprieve to the last week or so.

 

It's been so hot and scary-dry and out-of-control-bushfires are getting called in every day. Evacuation centres set up and the heli-taks are filling up with water on the school oval. A woman is walking around town looking for her cat. Her house burned down and she was staying at the backpackers, she said.

As I drove home today, the rain has created that 'shedding' phenomena that I mentioned about the same time last year - the karris suddenly shed their bark when it rains after a hot spell. The roads were covered in crunchy tendrils of tree skin where ever I drove through a karri forest. These skins look like snakes in that they curve and move on the road. 

Over the hot days, I've put fresh water out for the birds and animals. I never feed them here. My thoughts are that they've survived fine without me for millennia, but I know they just love fresh water. They get so excited when I fill up the old enamelled pot. Yesterday I watched a sacred kingfisher come in for a drink, then a wattler which in keeping with its thug reputation, had a glorious bath for fifteen minutes while the king parrots waited patiently. Red robins, silver eyes, spotted pardolotes, firetail finches and thornbills. Then, early this morning, a Carnaby landed. 

 

This cockatoo seemed to like the general idea of water but was so bloody huge and couldn't work out how to actually bathe in it!

3 comments:

  1. A friend of mine has a house high up in the rocky, dry mountains of Spain. At night, wild boar come and drink from his swimming pool.

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    1. There's a dead roo on the track. This is a weird story but two days ago it was a whole carcass and today it was in pieces.

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    2. Oh yes, the weird bit, I think it was pigs.

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