27. KICKING BLACK BIRD ARSE

Each summer, Poppy Peahen lays eggs.

25. ROBIN PEOPLE WATCHING

Some mornings are meant for bird-watching.

Some mornings a bird pops out to look at me.

24. PEACE

Four Peaceful Doves sitting on a bath,

Fluffing up, showering and making me laugh.

23. TOP OF THE TREE, BOTTOM OF THE BATH

White-winged Choughs are mud nest builders; they are also maniac birds. Mainly black with white under-wings and wing tips, they have a mean curved beak as well. They hang out in family groups of a couple of dozen birds, and the top dog is pushy. Very.

22. GOLDEN KISSES

Olive Honeyeater looking to the sun,

the light is on your face;

morning has begun. 

21: FEASTING

Welcome Swallows outstayed their welcome in my garden. 

20. SCREAMING AFTER DAWN

6:15 am, I’m feeding Poppy Peahen outside. The sun isn’t all the way up yet. It’s hard to see the Cockatoos in the gum. There’s not light enough to count them.

19. CRAPPY WET WASHING

In 2015, Poppy our Peahen ran away. We didn’t see her for a month. They were weeks of worrying I’d spooked her off. It was because she’d sat on the back door mat making squidgy do-do and I ended up sitting in it. 

18: EARLY BIRD TWITTER FEED

Halfway through dawn 
birds chime in,
singing in a fresh, 
mid-autumn day.

17. TOP GUN PICKUP MOVES

I’d just watched ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and was having a good cry at the outcome I already knew. Looking outside, I gasped; holding my hand to my chest as a melodramatic creature from a bonnet drama might do. Two Wedge-tailed Eagles were copycatting each other, circle gliding in the thermals above our home. One slowly spiraled down, while the other spun higher in a classic mirror image. 

16: INHERITANCE

I managed to catch the bird-watching gene from both parents. 

15. FRIGHTENING FINCHES

Late summer-early autumn is finch time on the farm. They’re cheeping in the yard; it’s the cutest sound a bird can make. The large family group of Double-barred Finches hop closer.