July 2007 - Bird Story

Bird Story

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Bird Story - July 2007

Kookaburra and magpie

July 30th 2007 20:07

Over the past couple of days, as I have spent much of my time relaxing rather than working, I have noticed the seasons changing outside. This has changed the inhabitants in our garden a little.

Once again, after a break of several months, I heard the local kookaburra laughing from a nearby chimney. Last year, we had two parents and a baby visit our yard frequently for a few weeks. They would sit on our fence, washing hoist, or carport roof, and totally ignoring the seagulls who flew squawking at them in annoyance of having their territory encroached upon, would suddenly break into action from their rigidity and swoop down upon our lawn to grab a grub. They have grown fairly tame over the past 3-4 years, recognizing us as harmless and trustworthy. Sometimes I would throw out some lamb scraps or left over pasts to the seagulls and the kookaburras would fly on down to gobble these morsels.

Another change in the air is the return of the magpies. I was writing up my chapter about the Australian black-backed magpie for my upcoming book last week, thinking what a shame it was that we had not seen any in our yard for some time, when I heard one on next door's aerial. Their song is beautiful and I have missed it. Apparently it is one of the most complex songs in the Australian bird language. I recall my son attempting to copy the warble, and to practice it along with one of the young a few years ago.

If either species decides to use our yard for habitat again, I will definitely be taking some more pictures on my digital camera, and post some here!

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Red-whiskered bulbuls

July 27th 2007 18:26

I was happy to notice that a pair of red whiskered bulbuls seemed to be very interested in the privet bush that is situated near our dunny. We previously had a pair make a nest in our overgrown cotoneaster, which alas had an accident, the details of which will be readable in my upcoming book OUR AUSTRALIAN FEATHERED FRIENDS, which is due out later this year. The privet bush is far more secure, and should they choose to actually build their nest there, I will take great delight in being able to watch the growth of the youngsters from my kitchen window! I may even be able to grab a few pictures using the zoom.

These birds do not seem to have much habitat listed in Australia. I am not sure if this is a recent matter, or if they have always lived only around select districts, but when researching online a couple of years ago in order to find out their correct name as I had never come across such birds before, I discovered that they only currently live in a few specific areas of Australia, one of which is right here. I have also learned that they live in the US, so will be soon be researching to discover where exactly they are located over there. It is quite exciting to have a couple to observe in our back yard, though.

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WELCOME! (overview)

July 23rd 2007 18:40

Since feeding ducks in my English childhood, through having a pet budgie during my teens, and regular geese feeding trips, accompanied by my young son, at a local lake, after raiding a baker’s waste bin each morning, birds have played an important part of my life right through. My son and I moved to the Illawarra district, escaping the Sydney suburbs, in the middle of 2001. The very first thing we saw when opening the back door of our new rental property on the day we moved in, was a note and photo pinned to the back door. It informed the new residents - us - that their was a tame magpie who could be hand-fed pieces of cheese and would sometimes walk inside the house. The photo showed this beautiful bird perched on a former resident’s leg. My enthusiastic son was looking for the said bird within days.

For the first 2-3 years of living here, we did make acquaintance with a pair of magpies, and witnessed a couple of their generations of offspring also. They got to know us, and indeed, they would walk right inside at times, though they preferred to sit on our doormat and eat tiny pieces of cheese from a white plastic tub in addition to pecking about the lawns for grubs. They moved out of the area the following year, probably because some large ravens moved into the park nearby and bullied them. However, it was at around this time that we first made acquaintance with the next flock of birds - a couple of show-pigeons.

We are not aware of where they came from, but assume that they were released by a breeder due to being imperfect in some way. We simply found them pecking about our yard one day, when returning from a day trip. My son fed them some chip crumbs, which they ate greedily. The following day, I threw down some soup grains, as they were still there, and when they flew down and gobbled these up also, I realized I would need to go to the grocery store and buy some birdseed. Since that day, they have feasted upon two helpings of wild birdseed, sometimes with budgie seed, cheese, or scraps of homemade bread or rice left over from our dinner plates. They gave birth to three beautiful pure-white sons, and a lovely gray son. We set up a dog water bowl for a bath/water source, and we have had these pigeons ever since, living upon the alcove/windowsills at night, feeding from us and hanging out with us by day.

Around a week ago, the original male became poorly. I scooped him up from next door’s yard in a washing basket, and laid him on a soft towel in our entryway. The pigeons often came inside, like the magpies, so he was not scared to be brought inside. He made it through the night, managed a drink via a spoon of water, and I was just beginning to hope he might pull through from the poisoning, when he began to cool, and then passed away. I sat with him in his last moments, and spoke the words of a Tibetan Buddhist chant for his peace. Then I buried him in the yard, under a cactus, with two feathers his wife-bird dropped.

He was a really special bird to me. Whenever I was sad, and moped leaning on my windowsill, he would come up and stare in at me from outside, understanding me. He was the bravest of them all, and never flinched when I moved the curtains, or shifted position. He often sat on my head, shoulder, or wrist when I went outside, or fed the birds. His death really hurt my heart because we had been so close.

Sometime in the next few months, I hope to write a book about the birds that I have encountered in the back yard and on my many nature hikes locally. That special pigeon is going to star on the cover. I had already planned this book, but his death means that it will be the next book I write, rather than slotting in a family drama novel and life appreciation book first. In the meantime, I decided that I would start up a blog, just dealing with the local bird life, which I truly care about. Once the book is published, people may want to read updates on these birds I have written of, and I thought this blog might also be a good place for them to learn the latest.

Bird Story - July 2007

Kookaburra and magpie

Red-whiskered bulbuls

WELCOME! (overview)

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