The local Kookaburras

This is our back yard.

I feed these characters on a regular basis.  There are nine regulars.  Obviously two had business elsewhere when this photo was taken.  .

Most will take the food from my hand.  They had learnt to open their beaks and I could throw the food in, but then the marauding butcher birds would swoop at just the right moment and catch it mid-way between me and said beak.  

They all have their own personalities.

Different ways of opening their beak.

Different ways of taking food from my hand from delicately picking it out from between my finger and thumb to taking half the length of a finger along too.

Different engagement with me, from the one who likes to take the food and then drop it, and look me in the eye as is to say "Tricked you!" to the one who is a mite fearful, will not eat out of my hand but will stay, nervously, if I throw from a metre and a half away. 

And they obviously have a status order of some sort.  Some will not eat if another particular one is there, or is not there.  Some will argue with certain others, cackling angrily.  

I can imagine the first settlers to this country first hearing the sound of a "Laughing Jackass" and being totally freaked by it.  It is eerie!

And, of course, they will insist on sitting really close together if they are friends, which means that they will help themselves to their neighbour's food if he gives them half a chance.    

It an enormous privilege to be able to interact with them, 

and an enormous pleasure!!

[Story] I name you Bronze-wing

This morning I walked along the tracks through Aussie bush not far from our house. 

There are all sorts of creatures living there and I love to stop and see if I can spot whatever it is that is creating rustling noises not far from the track. There are goannas, snakes, birds, lizards, echidnas (though I have never had the luck to see one of those), and the occasional wallaby.

Today, there was a rather large bird pecking about near the dry creek. I could not identify it - a stranger.

As I walked back that way, two of them flew up and into the trees not far away. I was lucky to meet a man and his wife just then. They identified the birds as bronze-wing pigeons. Beautiful people, those people, friendly and kind. The birds are rather dull-coloured, though apparently if the sun shines on the bronze, it is beautiful. To me it was a beautiful experience, though - bringing back absolutely beautiful memories, and the feeling of something clicking into place.

When I was a little girl, growing up in the country, there was a young man - a "bit of a character" - who had a perfectly chosen nick-name for everyone in the district. Mine ... because of my own name, Bronwyn, was "bronze-wing". He was a bit of larrikin, but well-liked, and occasionally, my family would refer to me as bronze-wing, or remind me that that was the name Lennie had given me, always with humorous respect for him and with tender love for me.

I don't remember ever meeting or being shown a bronze-wing pigeon then or since - until today. It was just Lennie's lovely nick-name, and it brings back memories of those days - images, scents, sounds, and the pervading feeling of love. Click!

............................ 

Bronze-wing : Part 2

Lennie, the larrikin.  Lennie the name-giver.

I think life was painful for Lennie.  

He did have a wonderful sense of humour, possibly it could be called a wicked sense of humour.  

I guess he could have been seen as wicked.  When we went back 10 years or so ago to the centenary of the primary school he and I attended, there were the records of the canings he was given - almost daily.  I don't remember what misdemeanors he committed - possibly swearing ..., but he probably made life difficult for the teachers.

I suspect he saw no relevance in school, or its operations.

He loved his car, I remember.  It burbled - certainly a V8.  I remember him arriving at a rodeo, driving slowly behind the cars parked around the rodeo ring, looking for a pace to stop, and creating a jaunty little change to the burble of his car as he passed, as a way of saying "hello".

He grew up on a farm as we all did, but obviously had no desire to stay there.  He drove school buses for a while and then became a long distance truckie.  It must have a been a huge worry for his wife.  He was a diabetic, but rebelled against the stringent diet and exercise restrictions.

He was a person who questioned life and expressed his views with that special witty humour. Everyone  in that community, as far as I know, appreciated his wit.  He did have a sense of humour and there was often a twinkle in his eye, though also often a grimace.  I know he had the knack, whenever he saw me, of communicating both a question as to the most basic of my assumptions about myself and what I was doing, and, simultaneously, a feeling of love, respect and fellowship.

Funny.  Clever.  Different.  Irreverent.  Insightful.

.....................................

Today I have just read that the autopsy performed on Robin Williams showed no traces of drugs or alcohol.  The final indignity.  

But this, too, was a man who was funny, clever, different, irreverent, insightful and with that same communication of love, respect and fellowship.

R.I.P. Robin Williams.

R.I.P. Lenny ...

and thank you for my totem, "Bronze-wing". 

Lessons for Mothers ... from Magpies

I feed lots of birds that arrive in our back yard each day, and, of course, that includes magpies.  Bullies, they are, these magpies, mainly because they are bigger than the normal clientele.  They simply stalk up to someone else and take their food.  The butcher birds are simply too polite, or merely too canny, to fight, though the lorikeets will object and sometimes win, so gamely.

This is one of the recent crop of baby magpies.

"Bubbacluck" because he clucks as he eats rather than make the baby noises he would use with his mother to be fed.

I wonder, sometimes, if the lump on his heel is a cancer, but it doesn't seem to concern him.

The parents feed normally most of the time, swallowing down each morsel as it comes, but then suddenly they will start collecting the morsels, waiting for each one, until they have a huge beak load.  Then they will fly off.  And it's then that I know they are feeding babies.

Eventually, when the babies can fly and fend for themselves to a degree, the parents bring them to our back yard.  I had gathered from previous years that there is a fairly high level of communication between parent and offspring.  This year I am starting to understand some of it.

I like all the birds, but I tend to get cross with the bullying.  Most, even the kookaburras, will wait their turn, but the magpies seem most prone to stealing, especially when they have young ones.  What made me really cross this year was when they would bring a baby - or more likely the baby would come begging and then along would arrive the parent, only to severely box the baby's ears.  Well, magpies don't have ears, as such, but that's what came to mind - give the baby a severe pecking until the baby cowered on the ground whimpering. What a horrible mother!  Poor baby - do you want him to eat for himself or not?  I learnt to feed the mother until she was full and either then shared with the baby, or left and then I could throw food to the little one.  Strange!!

That is not what happened in our human household when there were babies around.  You feed the hungry baby, even if that means postponing your own meal, or organising things around the hunger.  We do not neglect our children in favour of our own needs, much as we would be tempted to do so!!

And yet, here is this mother magpie making sure she is fed before the baby gets a look in, and soundly punishes him if he even tries!

And then it came to me - that amazing instruction when we are embarking on a flight.  When the oxygen masks come down, make sure you fit one on yourself and only then, attend to your child.  You cannot look after your child if you have no oxygen yourself.

I think that has amazed and astounded more people than just me ... and also made perfect sense.

And that's what that magpie mother was doing - making sure she was fed well enough that she could feed her baby.  

Lesson to learn - Mothers need to take care of themselves if they want healthy babies!  Duh!  From a magpie!

P.S.  Is that really what was going on?  Please comment below if I have this whole story wrong!!  I do know that the mothers and fathers encourage the babies to sit down very still until they arrive with food - obviously for their safety, but I think this is another issue.

Either way I it's a valuable lesson!!