Friday, November 8, 2013

Birdlife

This spring, many varieties of birds have been active around our house. The scarlet robin and his girlfriend have been flitting at the windows pecking insects. The welcome swallows are swooping and nesting. The fairy wrens are seen as a a flash of blue in the lawn (and in the dog bowls). There's an owl we can hear in the early morning and evening. The fan-tailed cuckoo (who we call 'turbo bird' as his plaintive trilling call sounds a little like a turbo engine whistle) sits on the fence calling for a mate. We've had several 'raven invasions'. And a wedge tailed eagle took the last chook that went missing... we didn't see it happen but our neighbour did as he drove past!

Yesterday morning David opened the blinds to find a green rosella sitting in the sun in the middle of our upstairs balcony. We think it had flown into the bedroom window and was concussed. We checked its wings, legs and eyes for injury but none was apparent. So we followed the wildlife rescue principles of 'warm, dark, quiet' and kept the bird in a box sitting on a hot water bottle in the bathroom for a few hours until he seemed feisty again, and let him go in the forest next to the house. Pretty fellow!

2 comments:

  1. I love listening to the birdsong at our house. Just recently we have had a little Starling that wakes us up each morning with his cheery tunes and again on dusk. Its so lovely. I wish the Swallows would make a nest on our deck (they say its good luck if they nest with you!) and I wonder why a stray seagull visits us each morning, even though we are 15 minutes from the beach! And the Lorikeets! I happily watched them on our bottlebrush on a recent day off....could have watched them all day! And your little visitor, he is pretty! Have a lovely week x

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    1. Oh yes the rainbow lorikeets are lovely! There were some who slept (then woke early chattering, screeching and squawking!) in a grevillea bush outside our bedroom window in Sydney. I know they were chasing many of the smaller birds out of the suburbs, but they were so pretty and funny to watch. The thick gloves David is wearing above are a result of rainbow lorikeet rescue experiences too. They can give you a good hard bite with that beak and don't like to let go!

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