The other morning (around 5am), I was sitting at the garden gate, just
drinking in the beautiful morning and admiring my roses. Suddenly, there
was a violent bustle in my hedgerow! Erm... actually, it was the
geraniums over by the fence, but there's something so - y'know - about
having a 'bustle in your hedgerow'.

Anyway, it was a little cock-sparrow who had pounced upon one of the
little fence skinks that abound in our yard. He had it in his bill and
was killing it to death by shaking it wildly about. I thought 'Oh no!
Poor little lizard! What can I do to save him?'

I needn't have worried. The lizard toogorf through the grass like
greased lightning, leaving the sparrow hopping this way and that in
dilemma. Should he go after the speedy lizard or stay and keep on
killing the lizard's tail, which was still bucking and bolting about in
his bill? He opted for the tail.

Long live Mr Lizard!


The other story also has to do with birds.

A pair of Spotted Turtledoves has nested in our cypress tree every year
for as long as I can remember. This year, though, there's been no sign
of them. I was sitting, as is my wont, at the garden gate, admiring the
scenery and making plans when I heard an unfamiliar noise somewhere
overhead. It was sort of like 'Whommmm' in a very deep tone. This was
repeated a few times and seemed to be coming from the neighbour's yard.
I peered about but couldn't see anything.

Suddenly, there was a loud 'THWAPP' sound and then another and another.
Three Crested Pigeons were sitting on my clothesline having a few rounds
to sort out their differences. One, clearly the female, sat back
demurely while the two males went at each other. They thwapped and
thwapped with their wings, so loudly I wondered that no-one else was
coming to watch the bout. They flew to the neighbour's yard and
continued on her roof. They returned to my roof and actually woke my
gormless daughter, who was sleeping in. They rolled about and belted
each other for about fifteen minutes before one of the two males finally
gave up and flew off.

The remaining couple repaired to the cypress tree, where they appear to
have taken over the Turtledove's nest from last year. What surprised me
most was the female pausing to hick up breakfast for chicks in the nest!
Oho! So now I've got a lovely pair of native pigeons in my tree. Does
anyone else know whether it's usual for these birds to 'borrow' others'
nests. Maybe they just happened to build in the same site?

Oh and one last story which would be funnier if you knew my husband and
his Great Suspicion of all creatures from the lower orders. He was
fixing some shelves in the laundry the other night when an enormous
brown-striped King-of-the-Marshes frog leaped out from nowhere, sat on
his foot, defecated copiously and greenly, and then leaped off again. DH
danced and squealed like a girl! LOLOLOLOLOL! My husband is an extremely
big boy and this spectacle nearly had me paralysed with laughter. The
frog was caught by my son and repatriated to the frog-pond outside.

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia