Conversations around the dog bowl

Saxon's food bowl has become the place to be for several of the bird's in our garden, the water cooler of the office, the local coffee shop......

Each night Saxon gets her yummy, appetising fresh meat in one bowl and a top up of dry food in the other. Curiously, Saxon much prefers the wet stuff and this is gone in a flash. She is not one to eat while she has an audience, however, and will politely wait until we are inside. Just one of her many, many idiosyncracies!! The dry food is like the vegetables on many a child's plate, always some left over.

The black birds were the first to discover the Macca's drive through, or in their case, fly through. They jump delicately but quickly along the balustrade, check that all is clear then fly in, grab their junk food, and fly off again. They make several visits but wait to get to the safety of the bushes before they devour their spoils.

The fairy wrens were the next to take advantage of the easy pickings. They are frequent visitors to our deck, scurrying here and there, always on the lookout for bugs and seeds. I don't blame them, there is an endless supply of silver birch seeds! They have found the crumbs on the ground next to the dog bowl very appetising. I will never tire of watching fairy wrens charge around, always on a go, with such grace and enthusiasm. Their approach to the bowl is to charge over, peck, peck, peck around the bowl, and charge off in a different direction in their never ending pusuit of food.

Just recently, a pair of currawongs have opted for the fast food option. Their style is significantly different. They will take it in turns to fly down and perch on the balustrade. You hear the 'thunk' as one lands. There is nothing graceful about them! It will spend a good few minutes making sure noone is hiding in the shadows to get it . Any noise or movement will spook it and as it flies off it, it lets the other one know to stay clear.

When a currawong is satisfied a dastardly fate does not await it, it swoops in, grabs a treat and eats it, ever on the alert. Then it chooses another one and flies off. I wont be discouraging them, though, as one of them has a seriously mangled leg and I think it deserves some easy pickings.

I have desparately tried to get photos of them but they are far to fidgety to take a good shot. They can even see movement in the house, one little twitch and they're off!

Now you think Saxon would be possessive about her food, but no. She'll even watch them fly in and fly out. And sometimes, just sometimes, she'll even eat the dry food herself.