They do say “be careful what you wish for,” don’t they? Whoever “they” are, they could be onto something. After quite a lengthy dry spell, and a couple of days of drizzle, tonight we have torrential rain.
I can hear the TV cutting in and out in another room, as the heavy rainfall messes with transmission. I think I’d better type fast, just in case we lose power.
The rain didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the usual morning breakfast crew, who all arrived bright and early asking for a morsel of food. The kookaburras looked like they were all having a bad-hair day, while the others, baby Magpie, the Pee Wee, and my little Butcher Bird, Hoppy, with the gammy leg, all appeared wet, but quite composed.
The valley looked quite magnificent this morning, with crisp green fields, and patches of white cloud dotted across the brilliant blueness of Mount Warning. It looked so gorgeous that I thought I’d take a walk down to the back boundary to get a photo of the uninterrupted view.
I even got as far as pulling on my gum boots and going outside. A sprinkle of rain won’t hurt me, I thought. I had only walked a few steps past the edge of the veranda though when a heavy downpour sent me scurrying back to shelter. And would you believe the maximum temperature today reached 20°C? I spent the day wearing jeans and a jumper ~ in December!
The white on blue looked so good today, I just had to zoom in on the mountain, even though I had to take the photo standing close to the house.
Maybe tomorrow the rain will ease up a touch, even if its just long enough to take a broad view photo of the valley for Silent Sunday. 🙂
The light this afternoon made the clouds glow and defined every crevice in the mountain and ranges. I’m loving the blue and white clouds we’ve had over the past couple of days too. There’s no rain about – and the ground is in need of a major soaking – so it seems the clouds are simply there for ornamental purposes. They are very lovely ornaments, I must say. 🙂
Mount Warning is living up to her indigenous name of “cloud catcher” too.
This morning there seemed to be several Noisy Miner birds in our back garden, causing a bit of a hullabaloo, so I went outside to investigate. Sitting on my clothesline, all cuddled up together, I discovered three gorgeous, fluffy, baby miners. They didn’t seem to mind me going right up close to them to take a photo either, so perhaps the adults, in whatever way they communicate, let the babies know they were in a safe garden. I still see the baby magpie in the tall gum tree out the front, but so far it hasn’t ventured into the back garden. I’m assuming it just isn’t old enough, or strong enough, to fly too far yet.
Drizzling rain has hung around on and off during the past couple of weeks here, and as it turned out, the drizzle was simply a rehearsal for the main performance. The unannounced showtime took place yesterday with a number of bedraggled birds taking their seats in the front row.
You may remember the view of a gentle sunset over Mount Warning that I showed you a couple of weeks ago, a “Wordless Wednesday” post. To fully appreciate the amount of cloud surrounding my home yesterday, take a quick look at the contrasting view in the link, to the one above….
Awaiting the main event.
Way down the back garden I noticed a kookaburra, sitting in the bare branches of the pecan nut tree.
Larry Arrives.
The wet kookaburra in the distance turned out to be a cold Larry, who waited patiently while I took photos of him, fluffing up his feathers to look his best, before flying to the veranda for his breakfast. He’s been visiting me for so long now, and seems to know the routine ~ food for a photo.
The Currawong’s Return.
At nesting time, many of the old regulars return to the area, including a family of Currawongs. They are timid birds, watch the veranda from a distance, and fly away to the safety of a far away tree if I venture outdoors when they are in the garden.
My “regular” friend, Mr. Magpie.
My regulars, a pair of magpies, are nesting nearby right now, just as they have done for the last few years. I can hand feed these two, and I suspect that I may have known them when they were tiny babies, brought to my garden by their parents, for a safe haven and an easy feed, between lessons on worm-catching.
Noisy Miner.
Never far from the magpies are a flock of Noisy Miners. Watching the various birds flitting around my garden over the years has taught me that Noisy Miners are the protectors of the Magpie Family. I always know where to find one of my cats in the garden, as that’s where the miners will be kicking up a ruckus. And during summer, when we have Channel Billed Cuckoos in the area (they fly over to Australia from Papua New Guinea about mid spring,) the Noisy Miners help the Magpies attack the Cuckoos. It’s such a sad sight, knowing that the cuckoos, if they manage to get to the nests of the Magpies and Currawongs, will remove the eggs and newly hatched baby birds from the nests and lay their own eggs. We found three dead, featherless baby birds around our garden last year, and as a result we had no baby magpies in our area. That’s the sad side of nature. 😦
Larry and Shilo, posing, and waiting for food.
I had to go out shopping during the morning, regardless of the weather, and I left my home amid the rain absolutely bucketing it down! We are having a baby shower here on Saturday morning, and thankfully the weather forecast is looking a tad more promising for today and tomorrow, cloudy, with patches of sunshine. So far, the forecast is accurate.
Little Forlorn Bird.
I love the expressions on the faces of the Noisy Miners! Even on a beautiful sunny day, they have the most forlorn little faces. I watched this little fellow, above, for some time, as he ducked under the shelter of large leaves, stayed there momentarily, then ducked back out again. I wondered, did he expect the rain to suddenly stop?
As I mentioned before, we are having a baby shower here on Saturday morning, so today I am spending some time pre-preparing food for the party. In case you missed the news, my first grand-baby is due in November, and my soon to be daughter-in-law is now over her morning sickness, looking beautiful, and becoming more excited every day by all of the upcoming events. First of all the baby shower, the wedding in September, and the baby due in November, it’s a very exciting year for both families. 🙂
And for an update on our baby, I hope that Mary won’t mind that I “stole” a lovely photo of her that she posted on Facebook which she told me her sister had taken one day when they drove down to Murwillumbah, one fine-weather day. Mary is standing near some sugar cane fields, looking very pregnant and just lovely.
In My World 