Currawongs

Aha, that's what's been making that atrocious squawking lately! Baby currawongs. Mummy bird was feeding one in the silk tree outside the window, and I noticed a second one hiding further up in the foliage. They still have some of their fluffy grey baby feathers. After a while they flew over to the bird bath for an ungainly splash around in the water which just made them look even more like they were having a bad hair day.

Unfortunately I have a few concerns about these latest arrivals in my garden. I have seen currawongs in the area before but they seemed to be somewhat seasonal, arriving in time for the appearance of berries on the nandinas. The resulting mess on the porch is not appreciated, and what's worse is they can spread seeds of exotic plants into nearby native bushland. I haven't noticed them breeding locally before. Apparently where their numbers increase populations of small birds decrease, and they also eat lizards. I had already been wondering if I should remove the nandina berries in order to discourage the currawongs and having now read an article about how troublesome they can be I have decided to do that. It won't affect these ones now as it's past berry season but hopefully in the future it will reduce the detrimental effect of currawongs on other local fauna.

In other news, we had a doozy of a thunderstorm, the lights were flickering all evening and the bathroom exhaust fan leaked again.