Bonzer Words!: Faithless Friends
...As soon as we drive up to the house and they see our shadows on the glass, there's tapping on our window, a piercing cry and a small grey and brown bird hopping on the sill looking for food...
Goldie Alexander tells of fickle feathered friends.
Because work takes us to the city, we are weekend bushies. While we are away the trees, bushes and flowers on our block provide food and shelter for many animals and birds. Amongst our visitors and residents we count blackbirds, wattle birds, mudlarks, rosellas, magpies, kookaburras, willy wagtails, finches, crows, galahs, wood pigeons, yellow and blue breasted wrens, honey eaters, tawny frogmouth and barn owls. Most birds keep their distance when we are around. We work on the principle of 'you mind your business and I'll mind mine.'
Except for the grey shrike thrushes which actually seek out human company.
As soon as we drive up to the house and they see our shadows on the glass, there's tapping on our window, a piercing cry and a small grey and brown bird hopping on the sill looking for food. Confused by the house having two doors, the thrushes believe there are many more humans than actually exist and race between balconies hoping for more.
Though we know in theory that these birds shouldn't be fed, who can resist their plaintive requests? Besides, we rationalize that when we aren't there, the thrushes have to content themselves with whatever they can forage.
Our most consistent visitor has been a female, the progenitor and matriarch of what turned out to be many, many generations of grey thrush. She always assured us of a warm welcome … providing we handed out a decent supply of bacon rind and shredded cheese. As she grew older, she sent some of her sons to retrieve these scraps, though still keeping a watchful eye on both them and the aggressively territorial wattle-birds. We were able to observe our matriarch teach her children how to command attention, how not to be frightened when we came close and how to fly a convoluted and confusing path back to their nest.
But, alas, birds can be as fickle as humans. Not long ago new neighbours took over an adjoining property. Permanent bushies with a weakness for grey shrike thrushes.
Needless to say, we haven't sighted one since.
© Goldie Alexander
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Goldie writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au
