This post really has nothing to do with either the moon or chocolate chips. The phrase was something Liam said when we were driving home from somewhere one night that struck me as such a lovely, whimsical, fanciful notion.
(This is actually a bit of a multimedia post, so please be patient while it loads.)
I opened up the back door the other morning and I stood there for a while just looking out at the back yard. I don’t know what the big attraction was in one patch of the yard but there were a lot of birds down on the ground obviously having a good feed on something. It struck me that as an Australian, I take these beautiful birds in my backyard for granted. They are just every day birds to us, but to people from other countries they really might be something special to see.
So I decided to nick some photos off the internet and even found mp3’s of their songs. Here are photos of the birds that were in my yard that morning … galahs, crimson rosellas, rainbow lorikeets, and peewees.
The galah is a clown. They are funny birds with combs
like cockatoos, but probably about half the size of a cockatoo.
They love to sit on telegraph wires and swing upside down
and the like … and they are very raucous sounding birds.
Crimson Rosella
The ones in my yard seemed like they had more blue on their wings. These again
are good sized birds–about a foot long.
Rainbow Lorikeets
You can’t get much more colourful than these beauties. We have rainbow lorikeets living
in our yard permantly in spring/summer as we have a coral tree,
which is currently absolutely covered in huge red flowers that they love to feed off (the nectar).
Peewee
Peewees are more properly known as magpie larks, but more commonly called
peewees. Not a spectacular looking bird but probably the bravest little bird
around lol!They are the birds that are always driving the much bigger birds away.
You can often see them in the sky chasing magpies and crows.
There are other birds that are special to me because of their song. I particularly love the birds that I hear while I am lying in bed at night. It’s something I’d really miss if I no longer lived in Australia.
There are two birds I often get confused. One because it is often called a rain bird (because their call is supposed to herald rain) and the other because it’s also called a rain bird, or storm bird. The first is the Common Koel (which is a cuckoo), and the second is the Channel-billed Cuckoo, which is the one I remember more as a ‘rain bird’. I hear both of these during the day and night, but particularly notice them of a night. I love this time of year because of the birds I hear at night. The third bird is the Southern Boobook which might be some sort of owl though I am not sure. And fourth, the Masked Lapwing, I know nothing about but I love the sound of it flying during the night.
You should hear what I wake up to often in the morning. Just before or as the light just starts coming into the sky. It’s my favourite time of day, when there is no-one aro
und, no sound besides the birds, and the light just dawning. If I’m snuggled in bed especially lol!!
The kookaburra needs no explanation of course 🙂 The “laughing” bird. This is the bird you often hear in movies set in South American jungles and the like lol!! Where of course there are NO kookaburras because they are uniquely Australian birds. The second on this playlist is the magpie. The carolling of the magpie is the most beautiful bird song I have ever heard really. It is music, pure and simple. The third, the butcherbird, is not one I particularly hear in the morning in the main, but it’s another lovely sounding bird which is related to the magpie. And the fourth is a mournful sound – the yellow-tailed-black-cockatoo. I put it in just because. They cry as they are flying. They are also supposed to herald rain. Each bird you see represents one day of rain, supposedly.
“In my own backyard”. I am so lucky 🙂