Spring has sprung the grass has ris
I wonder where da boidies is?
The Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike
boidies – at least three of them, anyway – were tearing
heck-for-cowhide around the refined end of Holt every time I went outdoors
yesterday. When one landed on a crossbar the others would swoop at it until it
took off again and the mad game of chase would continue. Two resplendent male
Common Blackbirds were trying to banish one another from the area the morning.
There’s usually a third individual involved in such territorial
altercations but not of late so hope this isn’t a harbinger of a
permanent decline. See, from casual observation blackbird numbers appear to
have declined around here in recent years. Maybe that’s just because of
drought, John Stanhope’s water restrictions and lack of earthworms near
the surface of the soil, and Terdus merula has moved to greener fields
and softer ground for a while. Anyone noticed if my sable friends appear to have
increased in the moister ranges to Canberra’s south and west?
John K. Layton
Holt.
