Let's take a break from the sadder aspects of the Kestrels' struggle to raise their offspring at the Block of Flats and have a look at something common to all living things' drive to survive: food. The wise scholars at Wikipedia tell us that the Nankeen Kestrel's "Diet is varied, with a large number of …
Well this is not really going the way I had imagined or indeed hoped it would. I'd envisioned an account of the dedicated Kestrel parents striving to raise three vigorous offspring; that idea took a dent when the third and presumably weakest chick disappeared from the nest. And today there's no point sugar-coating it: when …
Recently we had a couple of days' rain and wind which prevented me from visiting the nest site. I figured it would be a good thing to give the poor harassed parents a break from my sticky beaking (pun totally intended). But when yesterday dawned beautiful and clear, I hotfooted it up there to have …
While waiting for signs that the Kestrels were working on raising a family in the Block of Flats, I witnessed a few skirmishes in what seemed to be a serious territorial dispute. And it wasn't the other residents of the Block who were the aggressors, but a bunch of Currawongs -- the pied variety (Strepera …
As usual, updating this blog is going more slowly than developments in the real world. In other words, I'm not keeping up. I've got a good post nearly done, but in the meantime, stuff keeps happening. So I thought I'd jump the queue and do a quick post just introducing the offspring of our hard-working …
So this great tree has come up before on these pages: it's a giant old dead one, with enough holes and hollows to host a plethora of nests. I don't know what species this tree might have been, but it's one of the dead giants that seem to litter Gillamatong -- testament to a drought …
OK, in the new spirit of this blog -- which is to put out more frequent, less involved and obscure posts -- I thought I'd update you all on the kestrel situation. These pretty predators are my favourites, and this year is shaping up well for spotting and photographing a couple as they rear their …
Yes, this repository of wisdom and side-splitting humour has lain dormant for a very long time. It's not that there's been a lack of material or creative will on your writer's part -- it's more the realisation that overwrought posts on arcane subjects just don't pull in the readers. Who wants to plough through a …
When you think about it, a little cottage with a white picket fence is the epitome of cosy, homy prosperity and orderliness. In fact, it's almost a cliché -- the shorthand proof-point of buttoned-down conformity and rigid domestic propriety. Yet pickets, derived from the French piquet (meaning 'pointed stick or board') have a grim military origin …
What's up with this year's spring? None of the expected birds or butterflies are doing what's expected of them -- I'm driven to ponder some comforting thoughts that stray dangerously close to cliché.
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