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Some of my friends live in our yard, others visit it, still others live elsewhere and I visit them. Come and read about all my feathered friends...

Bird Story - May 2009

Front yard and back yard

May 31st 2009 16:15
Most birds seem to come into one yard, but not both. For example, I have only spotted rainbow lorikeets I the back yard on 3 occasions over 8 years, yet they are in the umbrella tree in the front hundreds of times. Likewise, the pigeons are always hanging out our back yard - or were til my neighbor took to rattling empty tubs at them - but I have only seen them out front 2-3 times.

Some birds do inhabit both of our yards, though. The doves like to vegetate on our fence, catch bugs in the compost, and share the seeds with my pigeons - but they can also be found in the front yard, munching something from the berberis and hibiscus shrubs. The wattlebirds are also as interested in the hibiscus and tree on the verge out front as they are the privet and abutilon out back.


I do not get many photographs of the front yard birds, as we live on a city street - and people might not like me sticking a cam era out the window and clicking as they walk past!! However, I have on occasions got a shot of the lorikeets hiding behind umbrella tree branches or some such useless shot… usually I do not bother going for the camera, unless it is the back yard though.
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Birds and Buddhism

May 27th 2009 15:45
Last weekend, I attended the Buddha's Birthday celebrations in Wollongong Mall. I was not expecting to have anything crop up to talk about concerning birds, but it seems that even when attending religious and cultural celebrations, birds come into my life! I had two specific encounters with birds during this event.

At one point, I was standing around waiting for the next entertainment to start up, when I heard a shrill chirp. Thinking there might be a rainbow lorikeet in the nearby tree, I glanced with focus to locate the vocal bird. It turned out to be a brightly colored bird that was sitting on the shoulder of someone standing close by. Obviously some sort of pet, it was intermittently both nibbling the ear of its carer and sharing their lunch whilst standing on their shoulder in much the same way as our pigeons used to on mine. It would seem that I am not alone with combining birds and Buddhism in my life, if the carer decided to bring their pet to a Buddhist celebration! Someone else must also have noticed that birds benefit from the teachings of Buddha…


A little later, as I was seated and preparing for the afternoon entertainment, I noticed a couple of seagulls creeping towards the seating area. It did not take me long to understand why, when spotting a discarded French frie lying on the ground beneath the chairs. Those birds wanted the human garbage for their meal! unfortunately, a boy in the front row kept shooing the poor gulls away, so they never did get to munch the frie. I was going to pick it up and toss it to the gulls - but then a family sat between the frie and I, preventing my assisting. I suppose it was just as well, as there is a law in the mall that you are not allowed to feed the gulls - but they do not understand the complexity and idiocy of manmade laws…
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Pleasant

May 24th 2009 15:02
It was pleasant after several days of my neighbor rattling an empty tub several times per day at the pigeons, to have some peace and quiet yesterday. I think perhaps the fact that my reacting to her 'nasty noise' by creating my own 'nasty noise' has taught her that I will stand up for my birds!

We are on friendly terms as a rule, and I would not want this to change, but there are more pigeons than people involved, so guess which side I go for if there is a squabble! Seriously, if there was a way to keep the pigeons away from her property whilst allowing them to enjoy our windowsills, alcoves, lawns and doorstep, I would be willing to put some finances into it, but in the lack of such, I have to stand up for my birds' rights to peace!

So it was quite pleasant that I could hear NO rattling for 24 hours and that both breakfast and dinner seed meals were eaten in peace by my feathered friends, yesterday. It was also pleasant that the white-faced heron came in to the yard again, after a week or so of absence. It may be far more silent than our noisy tribe of pigeons, which chase each other coo-fully across the roof, but it came quite close to the bedroom window and has gotten used to my face staring out at it. I failed to get any new photos, as I had my camera in the study, though.

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Pigeonalia 11

May 22nd 2009 15:45
Dusty made a late night of it for me, last night. I had gone to bed an was in the 'toss and turn' stage of trying to get to sleep, when I heard a pigeon land on the roof above me. I had hopes that Baby or Bebe might have come home to spend the night on my alcove, or perhaps Smokey had got hungry and come to find a sure feast.

I was wrong - it was Dusty, come for a fresh drink. I thought he wanted some seeds, so tossed a few out, but he seemed more interested in the water tub. Perhaps his usual water supply had dried up or become dirty? He did end up eating some of the seed I threw down for him, but left half of it and flew off suddenly, as if remembering something of importance - perhaps his wife


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The parrots in the trees

May 18th 2009 17:53
We had a newcomer to our yard, recently. Some sort of parrot. It must have been a youngster, as it did not have the bright coloring of most parrots, only a red patch on its chest and a bluish tinge to the rest. I spotted him up in the privet tree, whilst doing my washing up.
parrot1

parrot3

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Pigeonalia 10

May 15th 2009 17:35
Baby had spent much of the day with his fellow pigeons in other places, then appeared on the carport roof one evening last week. I knew he wanted his seeds, despite having missed the mealtime feed of such. He knew that such would be provided if I saw him, as such was.

After tipping the seeds on the doorstep for him, I returned inside. I stood at the window. Baby wanted those seeds, yet as he flew down towards them, he made a brief 'thank you' visit to the sill, stopping to peer in at me, before filling his belly for the night. Showing gratitude and respect, or just friendliness, he still observed something of value in a short detour to my sill


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Alas, nature is not always a pleasantry. It may always be natural, naturally just, and naturally right, but sometimes it can be a tad painful and cruel. And I am not just talking about mishaps, where attempts to photograph galahs stealing the pigeons seed end up in photos of amazed and concerned pigeons instead…
oops2

One evening last week, I heard a commotion in the back yard, just as I was relaxing and reading a book in bed - which is enjoyable for lazy people at this chilling time of year. I considered that it sounded like a baby sparrow, and wondered whatever it might be doing that made it necessary to create such a shouting


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Pigeonalia 9

May 8th 2009 15:51
Baby did not spend the night at our home last night. I am not sure if he tried to and was scared away due to noisy neighbors, or if he decided to hang out with a new girlfriend bird. He flew on in to breakfast with his brother Bebe as I was hanging out my washing on the hoist a little after 6am.

The street was rather noisy last night. I was disturbed shortly after retiring to bed with a book by the neighbor on one side rattling an empty tub on her wall to get the pigeons away from her windowsills. I was woken up 3 hrs after I feel asleep by banging and scuffling the other side, at the accountant business. (They are generally absent after 5-6pm - so this was hopefully a one off event.) not long afterward, I was disturbed yet again by a car alarm or burglar alarm a door or two away. It is getting difficult to sleep around here for people as well as pigeons


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OUR DOVES

May 6th 2009 17:11
We have only a few doves now, compared to several years ago, when we first started feeding wild bird seed to the show pigeons. TwoToe has either left us or died and it is very hard to determine the other doves apart. He was quite a character, with his constant chasing of the girls and his missing toe.

As love and dozing in the poinsettia or on the fence seem to be the two main occupations of our doves, it is currently difficult to claim that any particular dove has a specific personality. With the pigeons, it is a little easier, for they have different markings, mostly


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New Learnings

May 4th 2009 16:27
I often learn new facts about the garden birds - some of these amaze me, others just amuse me. Among the recently learned pieces of information, I can add:

* Doves will sometimes eat the petals of nasturtium flowers


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Pigeonalia 8

May 1st 2009 19:50
I seem to have a host of baby pigeons joining the flock, some of whom I have named, and others I have yet to tell apart. Basically, any pigeon with pale gray wings and 2 dark bars is called Scruff, any with dark and light markings on their wings is called Speckley, and any with an all black coat is called Black-scruff. From within these families can recognize a few individuals - Sore-eye, Miss Scruff, etc…

In addition to the three main families of markings, our Baby, Bebe, Smokey and his Spotty, we have a few other pigeons that stand out. Dusty is almost all red-brown, with gray 'trousers' and a regular guest - he has wed a Speckley. Gray-scruff is similar to the Scruff family, but the wings are a darker gray color. Brown-bar appears to be extremely akin to our Brownie, with the exact same markings and missing toenail - but with a slightly different neck and chest area and look in their eye. Purple-throat has a stronger purple color in his neck area and is fatter than the other Scruffs


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