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Oct. 20th, 2006 10:42 amThe foul and swooping magpie has not appeared so far this year*. There is definitely a magpie (I can hear it right now) but so far my eyes and ears have been safe when I leave my back door**.
In its place are five new types of birds. That was the count I made at five am when they woke me up. They woke me again at 6.30 and again at 9 am. They are just as noisy now, but the tune is different. Six types of birds now - the parrot family has gone all quiet and has been replaced by European imports and a magpie and a honey eater. I can't identify them all. Except now I listen carefully, I realise that the magpie has a deeper voice than the one that wanted my eyes for dinner and that it's nesting in a different spot. Right next to my back door, in fact. It sounds as if I can tap on the glass and ask it to keep the noise down, which means it's just one tree along.
I have never heard birds quite as voluble as these. I live in the middle of the Oprah Winfrey Soundstage for bird chat. This is a change from the year after the bushfire, when the magpie was the only one that survived. Yep, these birds are non-PC, being Colonial.
*Now I have to carry my anti-magpie umbrella until the perverse universe forgets I said that.
**For non-Australians, our magpies are not the same as the charming and innocuous European variety. Ours sing far more gloriously. Ours grow raven-sized and they outstare kangaroos. They also have commando-like abilities and tendencies in Spring. If Australian magpies had been the avians in "The Birds" humankind would have been obliterated.
In its place are five new types of birds. That was the count I made at five am when they woke me up. They woke me again at 6.30 and again at 9 am. They are just as noisy now, but the tune is different. Six types of birds now - the parrot family has gone all quiet and has been replaced by European imports and a magpie and a honey eater. I can't identify them all. Except now I listen carefully, I realise that the magpie has a deeper voice than the one that wanted my eyes for dinner and that it's nesting in a different spot. Right next to my back door, in fact. It sounds as if I can tap on the glass and ask it to keep the noise down, which means it's just one tree along.
I have never heard birds quite as voluble as these. I live in the middle of the Oprah Winfrey Soundstage for bird chat. This is a change from the year after the bushfire, when the magpie was the only one that survived. Yep, these birds are non-PC, being Colonial.
*Now I have to carry my anti-magpie umbrella until the perverse universe forgets I said that.
**For non-Australians, our magpies are not the same as the charming and innocuous European variety. Ours sing far more gloriously. Ours grow raven-sized and they outstare kangaroos. They also have commando-like abilities and tendencies in Spring. If Australian magpies had been the avians in "The Birds" humankind would have been obliterated.