|
Lately I've been caretaking a friend's pony for a while, which is pretty
cool because I get to ride it which is handier and cheaper than driving
your own neddy. Anyhow, over the past few days at the Parkwood Road pony
paddocks, I've noticed at least two Crested Pigeons wearing loosely-fitted,
white bands with black writing on their left legs. This morning I strewed a
handful of horse feed at the ever-pesky pigeons, homed in on one of the banded
fowl and dove at it. I should say 'dived' but some people say 'dove' instead of
'dived', while others say 'dove' instead of 'pigeon'. And some nasties say
'serial pest on birders chat line' but we ignore them ones.
I missed the bird and got fresh, recycled horse feed on the knees of my
nice, clean Levis. While scraping off the muck, I was subjected to ribald
comment from two naughty young girls riding by, and the stupid horse snickered
too.
I'm off to Wagga tomorrow afternoon and hope to go to the Rock Nature
Reserve, a nice birding location 32km south of Wagga on the Olympic Way, where a
friend emailed me to say he'd flushed a 'large owl' from a stand of peppercorn
trees twice recently. I wonder what species of large owl would be abroad in that
district. The description didn't fit a Barn Owl or Boobook, too dark and too
big. Perhaps it's a Barking Owl. Perhaps I should take a bird dog along.
John Layton.
|
