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Something that made me smile today

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sydboy007

Joined
10 December 2012
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I have a neighbourly kookaburra that often makes me smile with his laugh. He was at it again today, putting on a few performances.

Seemed like the Rosellas were in on the act too. They've been out back in my neighbour's tree chirping and squawking away as they eat the seed pods on the tree. Could even tell when another neighbour's fat cat came along to do his faux hunting which mainly involves lots of starting, some tail slashing and the odd meow. Alas no African Mina birds today. Tis a sight to see them dive bombing him till he runs off in panic.

Reminds me how lucky I am that I can live 4Km from the center of the CBD, yet still have this wonderful natural show.
 

That made me smile. Do you mean Australian Noisy Miner or Indian Myna birds?
 
Calliope said:
That made me smile. Do you mean Australian Noisy Miner or Indian Myna birds?
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Probably the Indian. Always thought they were African. Aggressive buggers. See them harassing the maggies and crows. Fat cat hates them, but the crafty buggers always seem to have a lookout posted and before he's even half close enough for a shot at them you hear the alert squawk and then it's game over.

As I type this the kookaburra is having another laugh.
 

I am not trying to turn this into a bird thread Syd, but there is no doubt that birds can be very amusing.

Indian Myna.
Noisy Miner

They are both very aggressive. The Noisy Miner will attack larger predators like crows, butcher birds and kookaburras.

The Indian Myna is a scavenger and a pest.

Aggressive in their behaviour and with their numbers growing they are taking over the nesting sites, feeding grounds and airways, attacking, displacing and sometimes killing not only our native birds but also small mammals and bats too.
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http://www.wiresnr.org/noisyminer.htm
 
sydboy007 said:
As I type this the kookaburra is having another laugh.
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Sad...i haven't seen a kookaburra in years.

Was a time long ago that i had a few acres and was burning some stumps and fallen branches etc..remember the kookaburra's coming in and sitting in the surrounding trees and swooping on lizards and bugs escaping from the fire.

Not an Indian, African or any other Miner in sight.
 
Every tine I hear a Kooka my heart lifts, the essence of Australia, big buggers too.

Miner birds are a menace, they pick the eyes out of Aussie breeds to prevent them getting food.
 
MrBurns said:
Every tine I hear a Kooka my heart lifts, the essence of Australia, big buggers too.

Miner birds are a menace, they pick the eyes out of Aussie breeds to prevent them getting food.
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I think Canberra has a Miner removal program, saw it on land line i think...should be done in all city's, a good way to put the 'have nots' to work.
 
Miner birds are a menace, they pick the eyes out of Aussie breeds to prevent them getting food.
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The Miner is an Aussie bird Burnsie. I think you mean Myna.

I think Canberra has a Miner removal program, saw it on land line i think...should be done in all city's, a good way to put the 'have nots' to work.
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There are no removal plans for native birds S-C. I think you are referring to Indian Mynas.
 
Calliope said:
The Miner is an Aussie bird Burnsie. I think you mean Myna.



There are no removal plans for native birds S-C. I think you are referring to Indian Mynas.
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The myna's are in plague proportion here in Melbourne. At any time there will be four or five in our courtyard pooping in our freshly washed linen. Saw some lovely parrots down at the yarra yesterday
 
Definitely lots of the African mynas.

The old crow is doing his performance this morning. He must be geriatric by crow standards if it's the one I see popping down for some mine at a neighbour's house. She has a little ledge that she puts out some mince or seeds for the crows and maggies.

I get the feeling the rosellas have stripped the trees of nearly all their seed pods now.

I remember when I used to work out at Burwood there was lots of oak trees. The cockatoos would come in droves and sit there for a bout a wekk stripping every single seed pod off in mid to late autumn. Some afternoons it was like snow fall with the amount of pod fluff floating in the air.

Got to learn about top cocky as well. Many a "fight" should an underling think it could get on the tree any higher than him.
 
MrBurns said:
Every tine I hear a Kooka my heart lifts, the essence of Australia, big buggers too.

Miner birds are a menace, they pick the eyes out of Aussie breeds to prevent them getting food.
Click to expand...

Kookas and maggies always make me smile when I hear them sing.

Last night had the frogs out after the rain. Amazes me where they could be hiding in the tiny inner west backyards, but plenty of them by the sounds of things last night.
 

Yeh, they seek out the nests and eat the eggs of other species. Noticed for some years in parts of inner Melbourne that you rarely see anything else now.

But yes the birds put a smile on my face each day. Have a family of Willie Wagtails over my back fence and choose my lawn to collect food etc. Amazingly they keep birds such as Magpies, crows etc away, though small they determined and persistent. I have seen them eat bullants as fast as they come out of the hole for minutes at a time.
 

Yes. I love Wagtails too,. You can hear them chirping all night. Their numbers seem to be dwindling. They build their nests in such exposed spaces.

 
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Something that made me smile yesterday was seeing Black Caviar win again

But getting back to birds...

I also love willy wagtails Fantails are another lovely bird that will come quite close to you too, they used to flutter around our back door at our previous place looking for insects and visit us when we were in the pool for some reason

The noisy miners give our cat a hard time too, squawking and dive bombing her all the time, she's not impressed :frown:

I saw an interesting bird early the other morning, it looked like a kookaburra but was smaller so maybe a kingfisher, although it was nowhere near water. It was sitting on an overhead powerline in a suburbab street, then it flew down into a garden - spotted a little lizard or something maybe?
 
What a lovely thread, so much to appreciate in this beautiful world.

Yesterday, was watching two little ducks walking together, eating, they would separate, then back together, was so beautiful to see, like they were looking after each other, and off they would waddle.

We have thunderstorms coming tomorrow, hopefully. I always smile watching them, lightning and the change that comes through.
 

Yes good to be away from arguing. Top thread

Where I live we have a dam fed by a bore so a lot of ducks gather and there is something serene and contented with the way they interact. We have learnt to move slowly when they are there and gradually they have learned not to fear us and stay put.

I have my new veggie patch just below that area.
 

At my parents we used to have a cat. There was a wagtail that seemed to love to taunt him. It would shakes it's tail feather and make some squawks that really sounded like you can't get me.

That bird would hop around the garden just far enough in front fo the cat so that when the inevitable lunge occured it could flit up onto a tomatoe vine stake or the fence. Then it would intensify it's taunting.

If the cat was inside all you had to do was pick him up, face him to the window and as soon as he saw that wag tail, he was growling and clawing to get off you and to the back door.

Those two provided us with quite a bit of entertainment.

Alas the wag tail won many battles, but lost the taunting war. One day found the badly mauled body and no more taunting wag tail I think the cat was so disgusted with the bird it couldn't bring itself to actually eat it.
 
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