Reads…
Jesus, Australia.
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That also got me to this gem of Wikipedia editing:
I’m imagining it having a Slavic accent, and expressing a keen interest in my blood.
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We used not to have house geckos here, but they have moved in in the last ten years. I have teensy little juveniles running around on the mosquito screens, and today found this adult hiding in a folding chair.
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Day 2 of The Robin
I’ve been told by someone who knows more than I do: it’s probably a Cardinal
One day my wife and I were at the front of the house when we heard a great THUMP from the back. Went through to see this on the big window:
and on the stoop outside:
Our best guess is that the sparrowhawk had taken the pigeon on the wing, then decided to head for a nice dark cave to eat it, and slammed into our window fortunately pigeon-first. She sat around looking like a cat who meant to do that, occasionally plucking at the pigeon, for about ten minutes, then flew off (with pigeon).
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There have been a couple of times over the last 10 years where we’ve heard a loud thud and found a bird laying outside a window on the ground.
One time, it appeared dead but a few minutes later it hopped up and flew off, presumably having dazed itself and recovered.
Another time I went out a day later and scooped up the poor thing and disposed of it.
In this case, the bird isn’t impacting hard enough to even, seemingly, faze itself.
And I think its mate just did the same thing.
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Rainbow lorikeets’ coloration is not too dreadfully conspicuous under all circumstances:
But it’s never truly inconspicuous, either:
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No photos, alas, but I’ve been cutting down a mass of foliage in the garden (checked for nests first), and yesterday a pair of bluetits flew into what’s left and started chirring at each other.
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I had a “clever girl” moment. I was looking out the back door at a squirrel just across the walk from me on the fence. The fence is fairly close and the top is at eye-level so I could see details in the squirrel’s fur and the walnut it was carrying etc. Then I looked sideways and there was another closer squirrel looking down at me from the top of the gate.
No squirrels or board game enthusiasts were harmed in the making of this anecdote beyond a sudden, brief discomfort to one individual.
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Looking at just the first one I was wondering for a moment whether you were in Giant Wood Moth territory.
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A visitor on my patio:
I think it is a small and not very green green tree snake (Dendrelaphis punctulatus). I hope it’s not a juvenile brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis). In either case I have dissuaded my sister, cleaner, and dog from effecting its summary execution, but the sooner it slithers off the better.
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On Sunday we were having a Mother’s day picnic by the seaside in Haumoana, not far from us. We went for a walk by the beach, and on the little promenade, my better half saw what looked like another rock moving.
Here is the “rock”
The weird thing is two guys were fishing not 25m away from it and they had not noticed it all day.
Of course, he was not really a rock, but a Sea Lion, having a snooze after some juicy fish.
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That reminded me of one of my favourite photographic accomplishments (no matter how unimpressed the subject was about it).
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This was not exactly local. In fact it was on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. But it’s a photo I’m pleased with.
And here’s a rock wallaby at Lake Argyll, photo taken from a boat with considerable zoom:
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This pretty lady under my lemonade-fruit tree is a satin bowerbird.
I’ve caught a few sightings of her boyfriend over the past few years. He is a very handsome cad, but I’ve never captured a good photo of him.
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Are they the ones that build and decorate little huts for their mates? And do they build them in your garden?
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The males build, basically, personal discotheques, consisting of a dancefloor and a “bower”. The bower is basically a pair of parallel walls made of upright twigs and grasses, but it is not so much a hut for the female as a bachelor pad. The females build their own nests, high in trees.
There must be a bower near here somewhere, because all my blue clothespegs have disappeared, and because I have heard the mating-display call of a satin bowerbird a few times this summer. Maybe its under one of my lilly-pillies or Grevillea hedges. I haven’t looked closely because bower-birds are rather shy and I don’t want to risk scaring them away.
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So basically you’re saying that somewhere there’s a disco bowerbird wearing your blue clothespegs like they were glow-in-the-dark accessories at a rave party.
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