Recent happenings

A quick update on recent events. Firstly Curly the one-eyed currawong is still with us, and he seems to be doing quite nicely feeding himself despite his severe handicap. However, i think he is no longer associating with the other currawongs, but has attached hiimself to Vicky Magpie's family. Whether they approve or not I don't know, but he comes and goes when they come and go. He has become a bit more nervous in coming down to get food from us, though. I think his good eye has sunk a little into his head, which might be making it even harder for him to get a good view and feel safe from attack.

Freda the neighbour's magpie who watches our neighbour doing arc welding has become even more friendly and now does a show for visitors by coming right up and letting them feed her. She is now almost but not quite an adult, with just a few grey baby feathers left. Dad Billy is a bit grumpy that she gets such attention from the humans, so she often has to hide from him by being even more closer to humans.

Last week Larry our beautiful and loyal grey butcherbird called me late one afternoon. As Larry lives in far off the bush, I always make sure I give him a little foodball to take away with him, but this time he didn't want food. He looked down at me from an overhanging bough, and lo and behold, a crow looked down also. He was sitting right next to a crow, and then he flew back across the gully, and his crow flew with him. Larry wanted me to know he had a new friend! We have noticed again and again that the birds want to tell their friends important things in their lives, but you have to be aware that it can happen and not just assume that the birds are randomly 'doing stuff'. There's order and method, as Hercule Poirot would say, in all the things they let you see. It's a non-verbal language, but effective just the same.