Monday 20 September 2010

My new friends...............



I have some new friends - of the feathered variety!  I am house sitting, while the owner is in China. L used to feed several birds and I continue.  There is a family of butcher birds, and one that I recognise easily as he/she has a baldish patch on the skull.  This bird is very intrusive and is usually the first to line up for a morsel of mince meat.  I think it must be a female, as it will load its beak with as much meat as it can handle and flies up high up into the trees on a hill.  I like to think that there is a little family there benefiting from my generosity.

I am trying to work out "who is who" - but it is hard. 

It has been raining today and I was surprised to see how wet the birds get.  One appeared looking like it had been swimming - opening its wings a little perhaps to help dry them off.  I promised it some food if it posed for a photo - which is how I managed the photo above.  

We don't get to see how the rain affects them!  I see a few birds with wet feathers taking refuge under the roof of the deck.  Lorikeets, butcher birds and noisy miners or mickey birds are abundant in this area and I've seen them all taking refuge.





3 comments:

Unknown said...

Dont know that breed. We have the odd Aussie variety here in NZ.

Di Hill said...

Looks like a magpie,but not as regal as a maggie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butcherbird

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