MOTHER MAGPIE'S NEST

Our two adult magpie pairs have some precious bundles in their nests.  Mother and Roger's nest is in our neighbour's property but can be seen quite clearly from our house and Mother in turn has a perfect vantage point to see our front garden.

I don't know how many babies there are in the nest since it is about 50 feet up in a very tall gum tree, formed in a very safe position where the tree branches out in four directions.  The inherent stability in that formulation and its choosing by the adult magpies gives some idea of their intelligence.  They don't build their nests in just any old tree or branch.  

A side branch of foliage nearby provides protection:  shelter from wind and sun.

Mother is a gentle, quiet bird but once her youngsters fledge she is very busy indeed and shows signs of stress until the youngsters can feed themselves.  Both parents feed the young ones and this year I won't be feeding them, I'll leave that to their parents.

Photo 1: Mother Magpie going for a walk with me.

Photo 2: Mother or Roger (can't tell which) protecting the nest.

Photo 3: The base of Mother's nesting tree on the left of photo (and another neighbour's house).

Photo 4: Our neighbour's winter garden which Mother overlooks, complete with pond  and frogs. 

Photo 5: Fatso, Roger and Mother Magpie (in the middle) eating cat biscuits.

WALLY - WON'T LEAVE HOME!

Wally just doesn't get the concept of leaving home and finding his own territory, digging out worms and bugs and feeding himself.  Where did I go wrong?  My beautiful Wally, who did disappear for a while, has simply refused to move out.  Despite the best efforts of our four adults who attack him, he risks their swoop and peck to come close, for food of course.  

The adult magpies have defined their territory and Wally is not permitted past the garden wall or the fences.  I find it very interesting that the magpies have chosen our own borders, in other words, my territory, as Wally's exclusion zone.  If he dares to come closer, they will chase him away.  

Wally is undeterred and quite defiant.  Despite a couple of loose feathers which make him look rather wild Indian-ish, Wally will sit on a branch on the other side of the fence; at the back or along the driveway and flap his wings at me, crying like a baby magpie begging its mother for food.  

I clearly made a mistake by feeding him directly when he was young.  I feel guilty at messing with nature to this degree and I worry that he might be starving, so I too sneak past the adults and still feed him.  I know I shouldn't but it is so hard to resist him.  Sometimes, when the adults are far away, he will stand outside my window, looking in at me and beg.  So I feed him again.  

Wally is only two years old.  I am not absolutely certain that he is male because he still has grey feathers on his back.  These should be white in another year when he will be fully mature and it will be very interesting to see whether the urge to mate sees him find another territory or if his mate will join the family too.

Photos 1, 2, 3 Wally, looking soaked after heavy rain, 

is on the back lawn, nervously eating cat 

biscuits and cheese and watching me fiddle 

with the camera.

Photos 4 & 5 Wally retrieving a piece of mincemeat, leaf attached as a bonus.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CREEK

Whenever strong winds and rain whip our tree branches around and the morning reveals a garden strewn with leaf detritus, it is a good idea to explore the property to see what damage has occurred.  Often a chainsaw is required to bring down a branch or two or sometimes a whole tree.  

On the other side of the creek, just along from the huge pine trees, there were a number of old, large wattle trees with quite a few broken branches which had fallen onto our neighbour's property.  We also needed to cut the huge gum tree branch which had fallen into the tennis court into logs and remove part of a photinias tree which was blocking the driveway too.  

So, last weekend, M.B took the car, trailer, ropes and chainsaw and I took the wheelbarrow and two cats and we set off to clean up some of the debris.  It was a bigger job than we first thought; one wattle had to be felled and another section of wattle removed.  I think M.B towed four large loads around to the back paddock.   When not needed to assist with realigning massive branches or directing the driver when reversing the trailer, I managed to fill my wheelbarrow with smaller branches and twigs of wattle & gum.  Our fire has been roaring, with the addition of these branches over the last couple of days, and the main section of the house is toasty warm.  Felix and Sascha gave us moral support (while Kittypuss and Lillipilli slept).   Sascha, probably remembering her eye injury, this time managed to keep a safe distance away while I was snapping twigs.  Such is life in the country (sigh).

Photo 1:  Photinias (majora) branch on the driveway.

Photo 2:  The gum tree branch which fell on the tennis court.

Photo 3:  On the other side looking down at the trickling creek.

Photo 4:  Pine tree understory.

Photo 5:  Pine logs belonging to our neighbour.

Photo 6:  Broken wattle branch.

AN ECLECTIC COLLECTION

With hints to past lives, careers, hobbies and current interests, one of our many bookshelves is stuffed with an eclectic mix of reading material.  

On the left hand side top shelf are some of my old law books; beneath it are a few books on economics, history, my old flying books and pilot's log book.  Many books reflect my current interest in nature, wildlife and gardening, although some of the bird books are quite old.  

The middle bottom shelf has just a few of our many language books, an old Webster's dictionary and the mandatory book on architecture.  There is some fiction, modern and much older and novels broadly based on Australian history and also an excellent novel about Hong Kong, during the Japanese occupation.  Hiding behind these books is a coffee table book on Australian Art and Artists.  

Above, on the middle shelf are books on trees, gardening, painting and travelling and some of Europe's great cities and countries.

The right hand side shelf holds a series of coffee table books; animal atlases - on cats and birds, fish and wildlife - and a geographical atlas or two.  There are books on our continent island of Australia.  

Beneath this, on the bottom right hand side, is one final shelf, stuffed with condensed version select edition novels which Reader's Digest successfully convinced me to buy.  Surprisingly, or not, some of these are quite well written.  There are a few page-turners there which I quite like reading late at night, as a distraction before sleeping.

Most of these books are well-travelled.  I have had most of them for probably too many years, yet I can't seem to part with them.  They are all,  to some extent, treasured.  There is almost something for everyone, don't you think?

 

NEIGHBOURS - ACROSS THE ROAD

Often when I walk to the letterbox to collect the mail, one or two of our neighbours greets me.  Annie is a Golden Retriever; she is no stranger to our house as every now and then she escapes her property and comes to visit.  She often has her daughter, Lilly, with her.  On this occasion, no sooner had she said hello than she turned tail and went home again to play with the red chooks that wander about in her yard and in among the orchard trees.

Annie loves to swim in her dam, in winter or summer gladly fetching thrown sticks, heedless of the ducks or other creatures that may inhabit that aquatic spot.

We've had rain and we have 89% humidity but it is only 6 degrees at the moment and it will go down to freezing overnight.  Fortunately all of this rain has filled the dam for Annie and the overflow has been running down Fox Valley Creek, filling several dams along its journey to join up with Aldgate Valley Creek which M.B has featured many times on Adelaide Daily Photo.  You can see from the summer photo how low the dam was at the height of summer, before our winter rains.  

Looking from our driveway across the road, behind the beautiful pine tree, is Annie's house.