A Day at the Beach

 Ahh, the beach. Took a quick day trip with friends over the break to breathe in some coastal air.

Couldn't leave without stopping by our favorite, "Pebbly Beach" where we were greeted by a variety of friendly parrots.


Summer scrunched down in distress whenever they landed on her head, but the kids could've stayed in the parking lot another hour I'm sure.

 Down the path there opens up this beautiful stretch of shoreline where mild-mannered, wild kangaroos live beach-side.



(Being there sorta makes me feel like any minute I'm going to see giant Teletubbies peek out and dance around those green rolling hills. So idyllic.)

 

(Gotta love taking pics of cute Sum-Sum in her oversized "emergency" outfit. She got carsick on the winding mountain roads to the coast...)

 

See the joeys peeking out of some of these pouches??

This had to be an old grandpa roo. Big, bony and real slow.

 Of course the boys were too busy sword fighting in the waves to be distracted by the wildlife. :)

SWOOP

We'd heard about "swooping season" since the day we arrived. A couple months in spring when the neighborhood magpies exhibit extremely territorial nesting behavior by swooping down upon unsuspecting passers-by. A friend compared it to the classic Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds... and honestly it's not too far off.

Sept. 1st we greeted our first season more curious than apprehensive. But when Will came in shaky and crying saying he'd been swooped six times while biking down our street, I have to admit I didn't believe him. After calming down a bit (but not quite off the "high" from the attack,) he agreed to go ride again so I could be an eye witness. Sure enough, swoop, swoop, swoop, three more times one after the other, nailed by the same bird. I could hear the crack of beak on helmet.

That's when it started getting fun.

The kids ventured out, all anxious for a turn to earn their stripes of courage. I wrangled them in eventually, but I think Annie stopped counting at 17. That was last week.

Today they started getting swooped right outside our house, in the circle, even on our driveway. That's when I started putting helmets on myself and Summer too. (Fortunately, they've only swooped us on our bikes, but can't be too cautious... I've heard more than a few stories of bloodied heads being patched up in the E.R.)

 Look closely, you'll see the black & white wings - someday they'll get a good zoom on the iphone :(

Check out his face all scrunched in anticipation

There's all sorts of tips - strapping zip ties on helmets or big googly eyed stickers in back, walking with a stick or umbrella, always wearing a hat, etc. (We're paying a bit more attention to these suggestions.) We've all, except Summer, been swooped now but fortunately never hard enough to be knocked off the bike. They especially like the girls - not sure if it's their pony tails, slower speeds or bright pink helmets.

They'll wait up in the trees or telephone poles, usually a few at a time. This guy likes to sit on our roof corner. Nailed one of the kids twice this morning on the front patio as they were rolling their bike out. Sheesh!

Maybe they'll finally wanna start decorating their helmets like this dude...



You gotta give it to them for so fiercely protecting their young, but I do have to chuckle at just another "danger" added to the list when taking up residence in Australia.

Bird Paradise

When I was about 6 years old, I got a little bird book for my birthday. I would spend hours sitting on the brick patio wall of our Tennessee home scanning the backyard with binoculars round my neck, that book by my side and a little notebook in hand. I loved un-clicking that fancy leather case to retrieve my dad's heavy binoculars. And flipping through those bright pages to document my finds. I felt extremely cool and grown up and scientific.

Fast forward 25 years. You  may remember in an earlier post that within a week of our arrival to Australia, we were chasing down emu on a dirt road outside the city. It was an awesome introduction to an environment that continues to impress with its exotic and beautiful wildlife, particularly the birds. Here are pics of some we've seen around.

pair of crimson rosellas in our tree

another in the back yard, so pretty

magpie through the back window

these guys are everywhere

white ibis in Sydney's Circular Quay

rainbow lorikeets at Sydney's Royal Botanical Gardens near the Operahouse

we couldn't get over their vivid colors

they couldn't get over the stash of bread - let us get within 2 feet

not sure if these count... flying foxes (bats) covering many of the trees, then unfolding, shrieking and swooping at dusk, swarms of 'em, it's crazy sauce

And some pics I stole off the internet of ones we saw without my camera:

lots of ravens in the neighborhood

emus: chased down two of these guys on a dirt road outside of town - fast runners!

galahs: these birds are in groups all over the place

magpie lark, smaller than the others

"kookaburra sits in the old gum tree"

sulphur-crested cockatoo - also everywhere, and loud

Cockatoos, magpies, laughing kookaburras, crimson rosellas... these guys are crazy noisy and seriously make it feel like you're waking up in a zoo. Take a listen to what morning sounds like for us (by clicking on the sound file of any of those bird names) at this cool site.

And if you're into "birding" (the new rage, I'm told) or want to check out where you might be able to spot similar birds, I've mapped them on a very cool site our friend started. Check out www.birdpost.com where you're able to search, chart, map and post bird sightings worldwide. Bird-watching has come a long way since I was a little girl- all high tech and fancy now with a growing online community. Cool stuff.

Happy birding!