Tomorrow when Spring began

Well 6 days into Summer and you could be forgiven for wondering when Spring will get here. Occasionally warm beautiful Spring days are quickly followed by snow on the mountains. The garden has struggled to adjust, everything is growing and flowering later, even in the greenhouse.

But birds are built of sterner stuff. We suddenly have a gardenful of proud parents encouraging their offspring to fly and forage for their own food. We have blackbird families, wattlebird families, parrot families, fairy wren families and - a first for us - a currawong family. (All bird photos are courtesy of the internet. They move too fast for me to take good photos.)

Fairy Wrens - such gorgeous fragile little birds. Mum and dad busily charge around the garden, pecking at newly turned soil or cut grass and the family follows along behind, learning the tricks of the trade. I interrupted their outing this morning and the babies timidly followed mum and dad flying back to the safety of the nest. There is always that first, brave, cocky one and the final, insecure one frantically following the others. It’s almost as magical as when the males get ready for the mating game and don their resplendent blue costume.

Blackbirds - turdus turdus - but to us TARDIS’s. These are the most prolific birds in our garden at the moment. They are a bit further advanced in the “kicking them out of the nest” school of parenting. They hop around on the grass looking for worms. The babies are already proficient at finding their own but make sure mum and dad are still in sight. Sometimes they test the boundaries and try to get an easy feed, but adult TARDISes are made of sterner stuff.

Parrots - more common this year. They are loving our flowering native shrubs, especially the one just out the back of the house. If we are quiet enough we can sit and enjoy them gracefully flying from bush to bush, noisily eating whatever the plant has to offer. They chatter away to each other as they eat. Spellbounding.

I think we have a family of 5. I saw mum/dad fly from one tree to another. The brave one followed quite quickly, then 2 more followed. Just as I thought it was over, the final one made a bolt from the tree as if to say, “wait for me!”

Wattlebirds - a mainstay of this garden. We’ve seen many a baby grow up here, but this year we channelled David Attenborough and saved a chick that had fallen out of the nest. It was on the ground, only old enough to have a thin covering of feathers. As I picked it up it opened its beak wide to be fed. Totally adorable but we knew it wouldn’t live long. We knew the nest was nearby because mum and dad were flying around frantically but uselessly. Looking around I spotted the nest and as I carried the baby back it started to realise that all was not well. Anyway, job done, carefully delivered to the safe zone. I hope it comes back to say thank you one day.

Currawongs - the grand finale. We have had 2 Currawongs for a couple of years now. They have taken a shine to the dog food on the deck in the evening. One has a bad leg so we (I mean I) have encouraged them down. They came back a few weeks ago and the able bodied one seemed keen to get a lot of the food. I didn’t think much of it at the time. So a few nights ago it brought its baby with it. The following day it brought 2. Two big balls of fluff, as big as the currawong, yelling at the top of their lungs to be fed. Mum/dad was breaking the food into smaller pieces and feeding it to them. Last night one of them returned and started to play with one of our cushions.

Needless to say the dogs are totally unimpressed when I bring them inside and let the birds loose on the food bowl.

So we are living in bird nursery land at the moment. One day the bronzed wing doves might bring their babies for a visit. For now they are content to take a daily promenade around the garden - but that’s another story.