Noisy Miner

I am slow to learn the names of the birds that come to my garden. I have been calling the Common Myna, a Blackbird as it looks similar, is all I can say in my defence. The Magpie was kind of recognised though Australian Magpie is a lot larger bird than the ones I have seen in Europe. Also one must not confuse the Magpie from Magpie Lark which is also black and white - but more white than the Magpie I think.

Noisy Miner

 Australian Myna

 Australian Magpie

Magpie Lark

The large black birds I thought were Crows and it turns out they are Australian Ravens.  Well we have a pair of Myna birds nesting in the awning of the roof next door. Every year the pair has a couple of chicks but I see them only when they have fledged and come to drink water and odd food that I put out for the birds in the garden.

Australian Raven

The Noisy Miner is a bold, curious and as noisy a bird as its name suggests. It is identified by its mostly grey body and black crown and cheeks. The bill is yellow, as are the legs and the naked skin behind the eye. I have not yet fathomed the full range of its calls. This year for the first time I think there was a nest around my garden. I did not know about the nest till the chicks fledged.

One afternoon returning from the shops, just as I was taking things out of the boot there was this intense cheep cheep chirping and it was near. I had a good look around my front garden and found there was rustling of the leaves in the big bush in the front. On looking closely, there was a pair of chicks’ dark bodies and yellow beaks. I thought they were the Myna chicks and that this probably was their first outing. I kept an eye on them from inside the house. 

It is a wonder how they can keep up the non-stop chirping, did they even stop to breathe? I saw in the dusk light their parents coming in to feed them, but could not make out exactly if it was the Myna from next door or not. In the morning, I was waiting to wave my husband off to work and saw this gang of sulphur crested cockatoos trying to descend on the tree but were met with a noisy reception with the Noisy Miner birds attacking the cockatoos. That is something to watch as the cockatoos are much bigger and in my perception more aggressive of the two but they were driven away to wreak havoc on the banksia across the road. But here were not just the parents but other birds too trying to keep the chicks safe. Seems they have communal caring of the babies. 

Later, I could still hear this continuous chirping but it seemed the birds were not in the same bush. So where were they? I had to inspect all the bushes and trees trying to follow that chirping sound. Looking at every rustle and tremble of leaf and thinking it should be easy to spot the dark chicks among the green leaves. Not so at all! Aha there they were on a branch over the side fence. Still nonstop chirping! I guess it is their way of reminding the parents that they are waiting for food and of their current perch. I got them on the telephone cable and then realised there was a third chick which seems to be sitting separately on another branch. This lot moved around for about 10 days and grew to twice their size in this time. It was certainly a good nature’s show having Noisy Miner chicks fledging in you front garden.

Reflections on Diwali Day

Here is Diwali again and another year gone by

Time seems to just flash by

Even when winter felt long

The summer has just gone

Getting ready for the family to visit

Love and laughter to be gathered from this visit

Strange that Diwali and Christmas are warm

When winter used to be the norm

Diwali sweet the year replaced by pani puri

The tang of the pani and crunch of the puri

The best snack in warm sunny days

Memories of fun and friends are foremost always

The year has brought the bad with the good

Meeting old and new friends and losing one too

Experimenting with cakes

Chocolate and chilli is all it takes

Visiting new clean sandy and pristine beaches

Cocktails with mangoes, guavas and peaches

Suddenly its back to Diwali and time to reflect

In thankfulness to God we genuflect

For the joy, health and peace felt

May we be with the same pleasure dealt

In this coming year

Just as in the past year

This is spring, is it?

This is spring is it?

The grey skies where the dark clouds sit!

The temperature has dropped from 30 to 21

Raining cats and dogs without a peep from the sun

Out comes the fleece and socks

Why does it feel that nature mocks?

The climate seems to be changing

Not all want to believe in global warming

We need the rains or there will be water shortage

But in comes a deluge and washes away many a cottage

The lightening show lights up the skies

Forking of sliver trees across the skies

Seeming to tear the skies asunder

Then comes the drum roll of thunder

The celestial orchestra at its best

Accompanied by the waves, wind, trees and the rest

The dams get full and ready to over flow

All services scramble to save people from the rushing water flow

Houses with water swirling among the sofas and table

Carpets and books rendered unusable

People left without heat and light

As it keeps pouring without an end in sight

Cars floating fast down the road

Maybe it is time to use the boat down this road

The water fills up the reservoirs and soaks the ground

Making the gardens and plants happy with soggy ground

After 2 days the rain does abate

Out comes the sun and returns the weather to a warmer state

The ground begins to dry day by day

The grass and weeds spring to life as is the way

The dry spell may last long enough for grass to burn

Or the nature brings back rain for another turn

This is spring it is

Nature has one more month to ascertain it is

Discovering the Landing Place of Endeavour

The day was going to be nice and warm even though it was still technically winter. I know, I whinge a lot about the cold but it is only because I feel cold a lot faster these day. The autoimmune disease seems to have flipped the thermostat switch in my body. I was used to the cold and actually enjoyed the cold weather. After living for a couple of decades in a cold country I was used to looking for a fan when temperatures hit 25C. The flip of my thermostat means 20C and out comes my fleece and warm socks and even a woolly hat if it’s lower than 17C! However, I can happily sit around without breaking a sweat till 30C and think about a fan only when it gets higher than that. Oh but I digress!!

Since it was a nice sunny and warm day and I was feeling reasonably good we decided to go out for a drive to some south beach. We had not been to Cronulla beach since we came here but had been there when we visited in 2009. I remembered that it is a much bigger bay and beach than the famous Bondi. Being a working day we thought it would be better as it would be less crowded. The drive was good and we got to the turning to Cronulla. It was a smaller road and as we went past a roundabout I thought we had missed turning right. My husband thought not. 

Anyway we carried on this Captain Cook Drive and the road became narrower. The sides had grasses and shrubs with the smell of brine in the air. We seems to be going right to the sea and not sure exactly where. I had a quick look at the road map and identified we would be reaching the end of the road at some point on Botany Bay at a place called Kurnell. The town has 2 streets and it curves out to run along the bay. The houses are really nice and the place looks cheerful in the sunshine. There were a couple of shops and a café / restaurant. We parked in front of the café with a little grassy strip and then the tiny strip of sand and the waves of the bay lapping there. There is a nice promenade to walk along the length of the street with benches to have picnics.

“Kurnell is considered to be ‘the birthplace of modern Australia’, as it is the place where Captain James Cook landed on 29 April 1770, making first contact with the original inhabitants of the area, the Gweagal Aborigines whilst navigating his way up the East Coast of Australia on Endeavour” (according to Wikipedia). From New Zealand, Cook had orders to find this ‘rich southern continent of Terra Australis’. The captain aimed to reach the coast of Tasmania but the gales took the ship to the south east coast of Australia hitting Victoria. They continued northwards along the coast and came up to a shallow but extensive inlet and the ship was moored for the first landing of the crew in this continent. At first the bay was called ‘Sting-Ray Harbour’ but later called ‘Botanist Bay’ as the botanists Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander and Herman Spöring found many new plant specimens. This was later shortened to ‘Botany Bay’. 

The end of the road leads into the Kamay Botany Bay National Park. The ‘Burrawang walk’ has a board to welcome the visitors all with a kookaburra on sitting on the sign. The path goes along the water’s edge, most of the time with a very tiny strip of beach now and then. 

There is a stone bollard like marker that signifies the place where the ship had been moored. There is also a memorial obelisk on the land. This place is called the Sutherland Point after a ship’s crew who is buried there. He was the first British person to die (due to TB) in Australia. 

There are also commemorations for botanists Daniel Solander and Joseph Banks. There is a small area where the path is across a narrow outlet of water going into the bay. On one side there is a curved seating area dedicated to Banks. 

Along the path on either side there is vegetation and actual information plaques about the local flora and fauna. The day we went there was a tremendous noise made by the frogs but could we even see one? No. There are ferns and grasses and many really old trees. 

Also along the edge there is a small wooden pier and with memorial plaques about the events of Captain Cook’s landing and their interaction with the aborigines. You can stand on the pier and look at the clear water gently lapping on the rocks or when it turns windy there are a lot of small choppy waves.

There was an oil refinery here that closed down in 2014. The day we were there we saw a big tanker and the platforms still being used. This is now going to be used as a terminal for importing petroleum. Across the bay and beyond the cranes is the Sydney skyline, the high rise blocks around the Circular Quay. Just round the corner from the bay is the Sydney airport and so during the day time there is a continual traffic of planes landing and taking off. The only thing that jars the usual twittering of birds and croaking of the frogs is the sound of these airplanes, particularly when the direction of the wind it inland.  

The path takes you to the Cape Solander (named after botanist Daniel Solander) which is the best place for watching whale migration in Sydney. There is the Solander Monument with plaques to commemorate the botanist. There is a lovely walk that takes you around the sand dunes and one sees a wide variety of plants which would have fascinated those botanists. All in all a very pleasant visit rounded off by a nice cup of hot chocolate and piece of cake at the café. Then we went off to find the Cronulla beach which was our original destination.