Birdy num num

Spring is just around the corner, and the birds are letting us know.  My morning practice has once more been joined by Limpy, who doesn't bother in the winter season but as soon as the nesting starts, she is back nagging me for a little bit of extra to stock up the larder.

Hand it over or I go for the toes....

 
This is the sound of them all calling nest to nest in the night that I got last year.  To me it says spring like no other sound.

This year it sounds like we have four nests within hearing, not just two! I'm not sure if it represents the same family all split up for nesting season, or if I can hear birds from other territories.  They are fierce tribalists.  I only seem to see one set of babies at a time so maybe those are other tribes outside our birds' territory, or perhaps other family members settle elsewhere in their patch than the egg nest and sing back and forth to tell each other where they are.

It's interesting how we can live so close to another being and not know much about them, isn't it.  And yet we think we'll be able to understand aliens when they show up? 

I had a meet up with another local feathered being yesterday.  Andrew was in town for a job interview and he still has his cold, so I went along as chauffeur so that he could spend all his energy and brain power on the interview itself.  I sat in the atrium-y space of this hotel and business centre to read and wait, and who should come to keep me company but a Willie Wagtail!

   
This little bird, insect eater, was once common, but was almost wiped out by one of the insecticides (dieldrin maybe?) that accumulated in their bodies form their diet and made their eggshells too soft to sit on without breaking them, but now they are coming back, I am very glad to see.

It was still odd to see one in such an alien environment. I would expect pigeons and even seagulls, but not a bird that I so closely associate with the bush.  What do they eat?  Spiders?  He was very busy seeing off a rival male with loud chaffs and chucks.

Piss off, you horrible interloper!

And hardly even noticed me, even sitting right behind my shoulder on my chair and staying put when I turned around to look at him, my eyeballs only centimetres away.  It is by far the closest I have ever been to one of these little guys.

I love their grumpy little white eyebrows and their smart tuxedos. 

 What an odd environment to find one thriving.

 

I found this video of one hunting bugs while someone is gardening and thought it was a good one for showing how cheery and cheeky they are.  You can see him do his characteristic tail wag too.

I think the tail wagging is a sexy thing for the girls. It certainly doesn't seem to help with flying or hopping!

Speaking of tail wagging, someone is happy that his mama is home from holidays, and making sure that she doesn't get away from him again!

You can't go anywhere if I'm on your feet!

Even though he seems not to have had too bad a time staying with us.

Although it got a bit hard for us when he began manifesting as Evil Angus!

You will comply with my evil plans!

This Raspberry Jam tree, so-called for I-don't-know-what-reason, is flowering a beauty this year!

And Cyrano likes that daddy is still sick and sitting around keeping him company.

    

Such is the life of a kitty!

At the end of writing this week I am less than one thousand words shy of the big 100 000 words on Land of Giants.  Go, me, go!