Sunday 9 May 2010

Birds of a Feather



Over the past 15 months I have been offline mostly busy with other things. Many days were spent at Etty Bay where quite often a daddy cassowary would come along with chick in tow. These birds are on the endangered list here in North Queensland and you are very lucky to see them. There is reportedly only about 1400 of these birds left. National Parks tell us not to feed them as it makes them dependant on humans for food supplies.

These two birds were very cheeky and showed no fear in approaching us to seek out tidbits to eat. They came right up close to the table and one was seen taking a loaf of bread from the table next to us. One day it was rather hot and humid, the chick came by himself and he was panting like a dog. With no bucket in the car , the only thing I could think of to supply him with water was a school lunch box. Once filled with water the chick started lapping it up like a little puppy. We still see the big old daddy cassowary but the little chick has not been sighted by us for months.

After a walk in the local park we were accosted by the geese who inhabit the park looking for a feed of bread. They will chase you if they see that one has bread in the hands and are extremely noisy. It was exciting to arrive there one day and see some ducklings that had been hatched within the park grounds.

Here is Herbert the peacock who was a daily visitor to my back yard for many months. He disappeared for a while and recently he came back. I have only managed to see him with his tail feathers up a few times and it is an impressive sight. At the moment he has lost his tail feathers and new ones are now growing back. Herbert looks forward to a daily feed of bread and he loves cat biscuits, a rattle of the box and calling his name, he comes running. The other day he came inside the house which was a surprise in itself but the calling card he left wasn't so nice to clean up.

3 comments:

CherryPie said...

Hopefully the cassowary chick has just moved on elsewhere, I don't like to think of the alternative.

How lovely to have your own personal peacock. I always love to see them when I visit stately homes. The are usually very awkward when I try to photograph them. The put there tail feathers away!

jmb said...

How nice to get an update from your part of the world.

Hope all is good and Happy Mother's Day to you. Although it has passed by now in Australia.

Nunyaa said...

Cherie, I am hoping so also, they are so inquisitive and it is with great shame they are slowly disappearing. Yes I am lucky to have Herbert, amazes me he comes when I call him.

Thank you Jmb, I will endeavor to post more often. I had a very different Mother's Day, good morning, hectic afternoon. I was spoilt, my son scrubbed the kitchen and fridge for me :)