The new menagerie

It will be very different now -sadly not one I can put on a lead and take for a walk but I can consider that they are part of the new menagerie because they have chosen us as their preferred place of building a home or coming to visit.

First up is Maggie the Magpie - I think she is female because her nape is greyish.These birds are notorious here for being quite aggressive when they have young and have been known to swoop down on you. So far I have never been attacked in this way, and I personally find the miner birds much more aggressive. So Maggie lives in a Bunya Pine in our valley - we see her perched - and then she swoops down to the deck and is happily fed on bread and bits of potato. She seems quite tame and will take things out of your hand.

In the front garden are the crested pigeons, Paul and Pam who have been fascinating to watch as they build their nest in the blossoming frangipani tree. The female sits on the newly built nest and the male who has these beautiful mauve and green tips, goes off and finds twigs. He then comes back and literally walks on her to deliver the twig to her mouth and she spends hours arranging it just so in her new nest. Today they were doing a mating dance in the street with their tail feathers up strutting their stuff. So babies soon we hope. 

Finally and here I have to promise you a picture as they are much more difficult to spot is the mummy possum Penny and the baby who appear on the tibouchina tree in the garden in the evenings. Cute little marsupials, very Australian and considered a pest by most. We quite like their nocturnal appearances alongside the deck, looking inquiringly into our part as if to say, so you are the new neighbours.