Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST
Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST
Full-Contact Nature Sport
We had taken a run to The Office in the late afternoon. Mostly just to check on the progress of Kitty and Kalev-the Brave.
And as the evening sunshine warmed us against the chill of the wind, down the river flat, in the crisp golden light a steady wing beat carried at quite breathtaking speed, an Osprey. Actually by now I suppose it should be “the Osprey”.
Continue reading “When the Only Thing You can do is to Stand in Awe”
We have had some rain. 70mm in 3 days, the gauge says.
And, this morning, I set out for my weekly Tia Chi class. Start of a new semester, so I was pretty excited about getting back to class. And at 8:00am, as I was getting ready, the rain, was, well, sheeting down. So any ideas of spending a few hours with the birds at The Office, were not even a glimmer of hope. But a we settled into such routines as “Waving hands like Clouds”, “White Crane Cools Wings”, and “Monkey offers a Peach”, it was possible to glimpse a shaft of brilliant sunshine making an appearance through the clouds. By the time we paused for a break, it was definitely bright sunshine warming me though the window, and stirring the possibilities of a chance to venture out in the early afternoon.
EE soon agreed and we headed out right after lunch. To my despair, the road into The Office, was waterlogged. And we picked our way along through the water, and the puddles and the inevitable mud pools. On arrival at the carpark, Kitty and Kalev were nowhere to be seen, and despite looking for a while, we still were Kiteless. So we wandered down to the river area.
Which as it turns was a great move.
Toward the end of last year, a pair of Black-shouldered Kites— we named them Kitty and Kalev-the Brave— set up and successfully fledged three young.
Well, they are back! Or so it seems. Of course they could be completely different birds, but given their relaxed and settled manner, and the way they interact, I’d be pretty certain that we are looking at Kitty and Kalev-the Brave.
Few things under heaven bring more benefit than the lessons learned from silence and the actions taken without striving.
Went to The Office for a bit of afternoon therapy in the warm sunshine.
Bernie the Brown Falcon was also out in the sunshine. He is a bit busy as it turns out. He is busy letting everyone know that he and Bernice have claimed a nest loction and everyone, including everyone, is not welcome.
And at the same time he needs to begin to feed her up in preparation. A one-armed flying paperhanger, wouldn’t have it this busy.
Normally he is somewhat intolerant of my presence, and no more so today, I suspect. However, I am pretty certain we are on the “ignore, and they’ll go away” list.
With the sun-shining, oh, yes, it did! We decided on a trip to The Office. This area of the Werribee River Park looks over the floodplain between the old sandridges and gives a pretty spectacular view if nothing else. On a good day its possible to see the raptors at work.
Unfortunately today was not to be one of those days. And with no sign of the usual Flame Robin family we decided to walk up to the Werribee Mansion and have lunch there.
Usually the area along the golfclub is also a haven for small birds, but the gums must be slower to flower this year and only a handful of resident Red-rumped Parrots were located.
Still the sun was shining and we had a fine chicken panini and coffee. So to look at the Ornamental Pool, and our first real chance to find some birds. Top of the list was a pair of Australasian Grebes and what appears to be their sole surviving chick. They had three earlier in the season. They were pretty protective and this one seems to be doing well a good sign.
From our trip to the Office a week back.
We had walked down along the edge of the river to a spot where the river cuts back on itself forming a little backwater.
Good place to stop says, EE and well, I agreed. Settled down for a cuppa in the sunshine. It soon became apparent there was a family of Superb Fairywrens in the locality. Their constant chattering and carrying food about, lead to the conclusion, “They have a nest, or young one’s very close to where we are sitting.” The obvious spot was a large crop of grass and low shrubs they kept flying around.
So.
We moved.
With the humans out of the way it didn’t take them too long to get back to work.
I’ve been reading, co-incidently Rowley and Russel, Fairy-Wrens and Grasswrens.
Published in 1997, it details a lot of the field work of these two Australian Ornithologists over many years. Intriguingly, I’ve been delighted to see a lot of what we have observed being detailed in the work.
One thing that becomes clear about the Superb Fairywren is the unusual family arrangements.
Once called “Mormon Wrens”, as it was assumed that one bright blue male was in charge of a harem of females in various lighter brown dress.
But it’s now known that there is only one ‘active’ pair, and the remainder of young in the family group are ‘Helper’ males of the first or second year.
On average the males outnumber females by around two to one. So a female adult is in as the good Jane Austen so succinctly put it,
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.”
Change man to female wren, and it seems that an available female has little trouble in establishing a new family connection. One such female in Rowley’s book is reported as having attained a bond relationship in somewhat under two hours of leaving the home territory. 🙂
So what we saw were a male/female pair and two or three helper males hard at work.
What we weren’t counting on is what happened after about 20 mins of watching.
The chattering went up, the birds surrounded the bush and it was obvious something was amiss. Suddenly at least two young virtually tailless fledglings burst clumsily out of the bush and took off, mostly running as they were not yet equipped to fly.
One took refuge alongside EE’s foot for a few minutes and then ran off eventually tumbling over the river bank edge and lodging (fortunately) in the bushes about two metres down.
The family continued its agitation at the bush. Conclusion being that some predator, – rat, snake ? had managed to get into the area. Did they lose any of the young. Hard to say. After about 10 minutes one of the helpers found the young one over the river edge and went to feed it.
Here is the drama as it unfolded.
The shot of the young wren is by EE (Dorothy M Jenkins- Friendsintheair, (c) 2016)
Blogging 201 assignment for this week is Setting the Scene.
As it turns out, I was gearing up to reflect on a day at the Office yesterday.
The weather turned Kind. Really Kind. The kind of Kind, where the cameras practically pack themselves out of the cupboard and into the car, and sit there going, “Well…..” “Well…. are you ready to leave yet.”
We left early, and decided to take the longer walk down to the river behind the golf course. This is really old river flat, and the river makes a distinct “U” for several hundred metres and then a fine “S” movement that provides for some great old river flat dissected by the flow of the water. Water bird can abound, and there is still some good grass and tree cover to make life entertaining for the smaller bush birds.
Its a long way for EE to walk, but stoically she lead on.
The Office for the uninitiated is an area along the Werribee River a few kilometres from the mouth at Werribee South. It cuts through the rich river soil and in places the cliffs are 30-40 metres high. The big birds – think raptors- enjoy the wind currents coming up the ramparts and I do believe a good case could be made that there are certain areas where its better, and a sort of ‘flyway’ or navigational line is drawn. They seem to favour coming and going along those locations.
You just know its going to be a good day when as you drive in a Black-shouldered Kite is hunting close to the carpark, and just inside the walking track, Bernie the Brown Falcon is loafing in a favourite tree.
Next up a Little Eagle made several passes along one of the ‘flyway’ paths. The Ibis, both White and Straw-necked use the same paths on the way to the feeding grounds along the river.
We sat with a family of Superb Fairy-wrens, and I will tell more of that tale on another blog, and were entertained by the feeding antics of a few Crested Terns. (another blog post methinks)
It was pretty awe-inspiring to be sitting by the river, dangling my feet over the river bank and sipping Earl of Grey, and enoying the time time in the sunshine with such a group of bids. And all less than 10 minutes from home. A most amazing place.
Easy day, easy photography, easy birds, and Just Another Day at the Office really.
How’s that for setting the scene!
Enjoy.
Continuing with Blogging 201 by WordPress Uni.
The current lesson is the all important first line. The opener that reaches out and grabs the readers attention and drives questions that must be answered, so read on read on.
Had to write for assignment 5 different openings for this blog.
Cruel fate deals a heavy blow in the life of a young wren.
– always good to have some catchy disaster theme, we want to know it won’t happen to us.
Super success for the springy young Wren who overcame hardship and rose to the heights of his profession.
– Always good to have a success story and link it in someway to a fabled lifetime goal. We all want to think I need to find out how he did it, I’ll be able to do the same thing.
It was a Dark and Stormy Night; the rain fell in sheets except for the occasional intervals when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets….
Hmm, I think that one has been done by someone before.
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com
The forest rang with the shrill clear sound of a high pitched voice, crying out challenge and authority to all who could hear.
– The old power game story, we want to know who, where, why and what effect this bold challenge will bring to the forest.
Take your time, the wind encouraged. Walk quietly and all with be revealed. Look not for the answers that appear quickly, but rather look, feel, listen, and taste. There is much to know, much is hidden and much will be revealed for those who tread quietly.
– Well when you’re desperate for a fifth opening line, a page from my new novella will do nicely.
And so dear reader, assuming you are still there, hello? hello? we can adopt the opening line I always like best for this blog.
Tell you what we’ve been upto and let your judgement decide to read on or to quickly click away to something much more relevant in your life.
So dah dah!!!!
We went to visit Timmy today.
-I like the direct attention grabbing simplicity.
I’m betting you came over here to see what the birds are doing and that is just what is not going to change.
We went to visit Timmy today. Just to refresh the memories, we had visited this plucky young hero a few weeks before the holidays and found he had lost his tail. Completely!
Then over the next couple of weeks, Timmy not only began to regrow, but also take on his responsibilities as territorial defender for his female companions and their soon to be growing offspring. -There is every good chance that the young that come from his territory are not his offspring, but rather the work of his next door neighbours. But, don’t be sad, Timmy’s genes live on with the females of the surrounding territories. Its the way it works in Wrenland.
We had, because of trips to the family acres, depressing weather, hot weather, other places to go and just plain old laziness, not been back to see Timmy or indeed the entire Office area for over six weeks. But, today, nice light, an early mark on the house duty(s), and we decided and afternoon trip would work.
I soon heard Timmy’s cry as we approached the corner on the track that he called home. And. There he was. And with a nice rich full tail. Well done Timmy.
Local boy makes good!
Among his new duties were looking after about 4 or more young. And they all looked just like “Dad”. Short-tails. Must only have been recently fledged.
So between feeding and rounding up the little ones, being harassed by the females, and being sure to take time to keep his nemesis, Tommy the Bigtail, in his own territory, Timmy has his work cut out.
And that is the way I overcome writing complex mind entrancing opening lines.
Simply show the pictures.
Enjoy Timmy.
A B Paterson created a series of poems titled, “The Animals Noah Forgot”.
The prologue pieces are quite interesting. Well worth a read.
We were returning from a foray at the Office when in the late evening sunshine we came upon a pair of Black-shouldered Kites hunting to feed their recently fledged young.
Sitting quietly by the vehicle they soon resumed their sweeps over the grasses around the trackside.
All the while being encouraged by their hungry young calling from the fenceline.
Enjoy
Three weeks of Blogging 101 and it time to bid farewell to learning and launch out the barque of blogging on my own.
Have learned a thing or three about the blogging universe, but not sure a lot of it transposes into the page here.
We did “S-tra-ya” day, Mahhte (Australia Day to the uninitiated), yesterday. Instead of the usual burnt snags and fatty chops we had a spit-roast sitdown meal at the Villiage centre. And among other things were entertained by Susie and Mel. These bush poets and songsters took us on a tour-de-force (french on Aussie day mahhhte? )
They have a wonderful way of combining the old of the Banjo, Henry Lawson, The Breaker and other with modern music. Imagine, (if you will), The Man from Snowy River, sung to Morning Town Ride, or Waltzing Matilda, to Ghost Riders in the Sky, And then to top it all off an audience participation number of The Man from Ironbark, with several of the village doing the miming parts of said Man and Barber.
Hilarious. Rolling on the floor funny, and brought the house down, – as they say.
See their website here for a bit of a looksee at how Aussie, s tra ya really is.
Got me thinking of The Bards of the bush.
Somehow in this modern rush of life, their way of life and the stories they told are at best no longer relevant. Hard to talk of stock and dry paddocks, and horses and whip cracking to someone glued to their mobile fone, trying to get GPS directions or upload their latest ‘selfie’, or what is the latest You-tube viral nothingness. But, of course I digress.
Another thing that came to me about all this is that they didn’t deal with the deep emotional stuff. There is no connection here like T.S. Elliot’s The Waste Land. Nor the cutting insight of Dylan Thomas, nor… and the list goes on. Nor the fine interaction of the universe, sunlight and shadow of the classic Taoist poets. And the old Hebrew rhymers who gave birth to such inspirational works that whole religions grew from them.
Yet. The Bards of the Bush give us an insight into the life and times of a generation or two who lay the foundation of S-tra-ya as it is in its multi-cultural kaleidoscope. And, well, I could go on, but its a photo blog isn’t it.
The Banjo it seems wrote little of the birds of Australia. Much of the human condition as he found it. So I’m going to take a bit of poetic licence with his and other works over the next few weeks. Never know where it will go.
These amazing birds so bronzed and upright. Here’s one of the young from the Office. That rich colour of deep brown and brilliant tan are always a winning combination.
Been holding off on this series as I was hoping for a few better days. But, no, seems to fit in here now.
The past few months at The Office a pair of Brown Falcons have been at work on their nest and resulting offspring.
You’ll have met Bernie before on here or Flickr. I only ever see or find the female occasionally. She is a much lighter colour, and I named her Bernice, – easy ah?
We were going in to look for the young Black-shoudlered Kites and found the two young falcons hunting of the fence line near the road. Only got a brief look and some pretty average pictures, too far away and too much heat haze.
Then the other morning we found one of them on the same fence. But the light was better.
So here is Chip. (as in off the old block).
It has certainly inherited Bernie’s distinguished, handsome looks. We stayed in the car, didn’t want to frighten it, and in the end, it just lifted off the fence and floated away to hunt in the long grass.
When I set up Birds as Poetry on WordPress I bought along with it some already set ideas. One was the title. And I’m still happy with that. Says it all.
The small tagline I added I have to confess simply because in the setup page there was a blank box to be filled in. And its stayed that way till now.
Today’s challenge was to make it part of the blog and help readers gain a snapshot of the blog in 30 words or less.
Well, in reality, I don’t think anyone coming to the sight is going to be affected one way or the other. Let’s face it, you log on, look at the pics, cursorily scan the text,”Maybe this time he said something worthwhile, (we all live in hopes!)”. See a shot or two of some -interesting- birds, and get on with the amazing thing called life.
So I decided seeing as how change is in the air, that I’d update it. First time round a small piece of Haiku from a Chinese master.
Was going to ramble on about a factoid, but decided that “Chip” was the ideal model. What a great looking bird.
Its all the rage against isn’t it. Star Wars.
Still remember sitting spell-bound in the theatre watching the sheer bulk of the Star Destroyer that seemed to go on and on.
So we segue way to Timmy. We last left our hero looking much better with his new appendage appearing in fine form.
Today’s visit showed he had continued to grow the tail, and we learned a few new things about his life. Firstly he and several of the females are carrying food in to the bush where the nest is located. I’ve not been given privilege to go see, so can’t confirm what is going on in there.
Perhaps they are not feeding young, but rather keeping the nesting female well supplied in food.
Secondly his tail has started to come on quite nicely, and he still can hammer out a song.
And thirdly. As its gotten bigger, so has his territorial aspirations.
Today saw him take quite a number of forays into Tommy the Tailful’s territory. Timmy was able to advance about 10-15m more that last week, and even has established for himself a couple of calling posts, so this seemingly disadvantaged lad has made good.
Timmy seems to have accepted my being in the area, and is able to use the closest perches without the least concern for my being there.
Enjoy a good visit, we did.
Last week, dear reader, like the old Saturday Arvo Kids Matinee at the movies, we left Timmy with a a problem.
Took a hour or so today, to go back and visit our brave hero and see how he was handling his injury.
And surprise, his tail is indeed regrowing. Not bad for about 2 weeks. So its pretty certain that he is well on the road to recovery.
In the hour or so we sat with him it was pretty obvious that his condition hadn’t dented his enthusiasm, or his strong singing voice. And we learned a little about life in Wren land. He also seemed completely undeterred by our presence and would land on his favourite perches with no concern of our being there.
Another favourite spot
Timmy has a rival across the path. Called him Tommy the Tailful. Because, well, he is looking pretty attractive in the Tail Stakes. It also seems that Timmy’s territory covers the path and about 10 metres into the bush on the other side, and then after a small no-man’s land, Tommy is in charge.
Now, I’m sure the rules are well written, but a bit hard to follow, but its seems that the border really is a no go zone. Neither Tim nor Tom managed to cross over into each other’s territory. In spite of some fearful calling battles. But what was obvious is that the young ladies on both Tim and Tom’s side feel no such limitation and freely crossed back and forth between the two territories. Much to the delight and the chagrin of both males. Each time a young lass would appear from the other side they were treated very well, and the male sat with them and performed all around the branches. But when one of the wayward locals moved over and returned they got a right royal talking to.
In the end, it’s pretty certain that the only winner in all this is of course, the Gene Pool. Female wrens not being noted for their fidelity, but rather the males end up raising young from other territories. As this seems to have worked down through the years, one can only conclude that they benefit from the excursions.
So Timmy is well in control, well on the way to developing his new tail, and quite capable of bashing out a strong territory song.
Onya Timmy.
Don’t you just love a feel good story.
On the day of a great feel good story from the Melbourne Cup, I found Timmy on the mend.
I’m not much of a fan of horse racing, but have to admit that the story of Michelle Payne, the wonderful horse Prince of Penzance, her brother as the strapper, and the trainer/connections story is one that fairy tale dreams are made of.
See the story here.
Steven the Strapper to qoute the article; “Steven, who has Down syndrome, was responsible for drawing Prince of Penzance’s number one barrier, and correctly predicted the horse would be “in front at 200 metres [to go]“.
And rather than go up market, they have stayed with their roots and enjoyed the evening at a battler’s pub in St Kilda.
Love it when we stay true to our convictions.
Now its not that I don’t like horses, I’ve photographed a few of them in my time, and its not that I don’t enjoy a good day at the races. Love the food, the atmosphere and the excitement of country racing. Just don’t fancy seeing my money going into an endless pit, and watching an endless parade of horses around a track. Now before some one calls me, I really believe that horses love to run. And to run fast, and to jostle and parade. It’s just that I don’t get the gratification thing for humans.
But back to Timmy.
You’ll remember when we left our hero that he was looking a bit down in the wardrobe department with the mysterious departure of his beautiful tail. So we paid him a repeat visit today, and another fairy tale come true.
Timmy has begun to replace the missing wardrobe piece.
Still as active as ever, and just as vocal, and still chasing and harassing the females in his territory. So tailless or not, life has gone on for Timmy. What a great story.
Enjoy
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST 