Hot funk weather & it seems that the birds are withdrawing from sight even further than I have. It’s not enormously hot but there is a stillness accentuated by the whir of cicadas & the mournful cellos of my daughter’s Apocalyptica CD.
It’s also not completely bird free. Opportunists abound; sparrows are stealing the chook feed, Mynahs are following the neighbours cows as if Cattle Egrets and Eastern Rosellas are gnawing the few droughted apples on my trees.
Starlings are hunched in lines on high branches like tiny vultures. A pigeon is cooing somewhere but regrettably, I suspect it’s a spotted dove. There should be a raven cawing to complete the scenario.
I think I’m missing the goings-on of spring on this very Australian Australia day eve.
Happy Australia Day.
Local paper yesterday had photos of a Lace Monitor killing a feral cat. Something very Australian about that as well.
schulzzz, toolamba, viv
Could we be facing a lace monitor-led environmental recovery?
I love your writing
, for some reason the same image that comes into Woko's mind appears in mine, hundreds of giant lace monitors devouring feral cats.
Go Australian lace monitors !
M-L
Well, we've got the opposite here, schulzzz. Cool-ish but steamy and lots of rain.
Loving it. Waiting for the heavier stuff over the next couple of days.
Wet and windy weather, not great for birds. The butcher birds and noisy miners hunker under the verandah or carport for shelter.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
I recall my pulse elevating the last time i saw a large Lace Monitor. It was only sunning itself but there was something visceral about its form, its claws embedded in a redgum's bark, its shadowy marking, its everything.
That was 27 years ago. It made me realise how i'd missed Australia during the previous 4 years abroad.
schulzzz, toolamba, vic
timmo. very wet your way from what i hear. dry here for a spell. it'll reverse pretty soon. variety is what it's all about but i could do with a little more right now. summer can be slow on the plains. speaking of plains, best get off my a... & wander.
schulzzz,toolamba, vic
I have Goannas come to have a drink, but haven't seen any for some weeks. But look at this Copperhead, isn't he beautiful?
(unfortunately not in my garden, although I have seen some every summer. This beauty was relocated at the Coolart Wetlands)
M-L
Araminta. Saw your copperhead postings a week or two ago. None here but more than enough Tigers & Browns. They're indeed beautiful animals. I must however cofess a qualified appreciation. Too many nonchalently slithering past when i'm head down bum up in the garden, too many dogs bitten, too many surprising me at the back door. One visitor took a rapid step, possibly jump backwards when she bent to pick up the shoes she'd left outside and fortunately noticed the Tiger coiled around them.
To reintroduce an avian leaning to this posting, is there any documentation of snakes benefiting birds? Maybe they control things like rats that would otherwise raid nests.
schulzzz, toolamba, vic
Well, schulzz, I happened upon a white-faced heron on my place with a snake in its bill. It flipped the snake straight down its gullet. This all happened within about 1.5 seconds so I wasn't able to identify the snake. I've also seen a magpie flying with a small snake in its bill, presumbably for devouring purposes. So food is another function provided by snakes for some birds.