Five bells and all's well.

It is 5a.m. and I am sitting on the edge of my bed, a mug of coffee in my hand. I have had a good sleep. I can hear the world slowly waking up.

Before I made my coffee I heard the kookaburras saying good morning to all who are awake. Their raucous laugh is a warning to other kookaburras to keep their distance, this is my territory, and also perhaps a warning to all the bugs to beware, I am hungry. Click on the link the hear what a kookaburra sound like. You've probably never head a bird like this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Op4PZzwwU

The black veil of night is slowly lifting. As if from a giant spray can the  dull grey light of dawn is settling down on the land. It is very still, there is no movement in the air. It is still quite warm. I turn on the radio to see what the temperature is only to find that daylight saving started in New South Wales last night and they are ahead of Queensland by an hour. For the next six months, if you live on the New South Wales and Queensland border, you will do battle with living in two time zones.

From the side of my bed I can see my desk, laptop open, dictionaries at the ready, and a document tray overflowing with projects in hand. The contents of this tray are supposed to reduce in size, but is getting larger by the day. Behind the desk is a large ranch slider that faces west and looks out into the front garden. There is a large concrete veranda outside the door. The house we are currently house sitting was built in 1973, Spanish style, with orange plastered exterior walls and three large archways that  lead from the veranda to the lawn.

I can see the camellia tree and on the other side of the lawn, maybe 4 or 5 meters away, a tall hedge of some native plant with red pompom flowers here and there. The mango tree in full flower is now visible. On the other side of this hedge the orange and purple bougainvillea flowers are cascading down.

I can see the trunks of many trees, one in particular is a gum about 40 or 50 feet high, its sparse canopy way up out of sight, its pale sandy colored trunk is emerging out of the gloom. A half moon is up there, slowly losing the battle of supremacy over the night sky. There is no doubt who will be the winner; the moon has never been able to outshine the sun.

A few birds are lifting their heads from under their wings and stirring. I can hear a ‘whoop whoop’ but I don’t know which bird that is. There is a repetitive tweet tweet from a few mynahs. Some other bird has started chirping, slowly at first then gradually winding up as if he has taken lessons from the propeller of a wind-up aeroplane.

The natural shape of the land around here is sort of saucer shaped. Not far away, in the  hollow where the cup would sit, there is a small lake. I can hear the geese from this lake honking their morning greetings to the world.

As I write, the air is taking on a pink hue, the sun must be lifting its head up over the hill to the east, letting the glow suffuse the air. It’s going to be another fabulous clear day, no clouds to be seen.

I can hear the pied butcher birds distinctive call, and yes, here it comes, the easily recognizable screeching from some rainbow lorikeets.

Pied butcher bird. en.wikipedia.org.

 The rainbow lorikeets are the noisiest bossiest birds around here. This link will give you some noisy lorikeets feeding. They are beautiful birds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtSCv--pRho

 In the distance I hear the screech of a sulphur crested cockatoo.For a picture of a cockatoo go back a few posts to the one about birds in our garden. A galah has just flown in, landed on the grass, stretching his wings and looking for some breakfast.

Galah. These birds fly free all around Australia. Below you can see his beautiful colouring under the wings.

en.wikipedia.org 

      australianmuseum.net.au

The sun has just risen over the hill, enough for its light to fall on the tree tops over the other side of the ‘saucer’. The sky is now the palest light blue tinged with gold. Having got this dawn snapshot onto paper I will go back to bed and see if I can snatch a few more minutes sleep.

Once the sun is properly up the front lawn is like this below.  I call this the front lawn because it is a flat area around the house itself. On the other side of this hedge and trees is another large grassy sloping area down to the road, but it is not visible from my room.

It is now seven bells and all’s well.

http://suite101.com/article/ship-watches-and-bells-a21555

People love their local wildlife.

One of the things that we really enjoy is finding what sort of wildlife lives around the houses we house sit. It seems obvious, that most Australians have a soft spot for whatever lives within their own area, and it warms our hearts to see the local wildlife cared for. We are softies in this regard too.

We had one house sit where there was a large family of kookaburras living close by. There was quite a large stand of well established trees out the back of the garden and they lived in there. They came around the house several times a day. We were delighted when we found out from the owners as they were showing us around their home that they fed the kookaburras each night with a little left over meat.

This was a very pretty garden, and the kookaburras came regularly. In the background is the stand of trees where the kookaburras lived.


In the past we have had aviaries and bred birds, so Peter was thrilled to bits. On our first trip to the local supermarket he got a small packet of mince, and started to make friends with them. It didn't take long before we were accepted as part of the furntiture. Peter had some of them eating out of his hand within a few weeks.

Another species that seems to live in many parts of Australia is the king parrot. Whereas the kookaburras are quite noisy, chattering away, laughing and flying around, the king parrots are absolutely silent. You don't know they are there until you see them. We have often been surprised to suddenly see a pair of them close by. They don't seem to like us to get too close, but like the other birds, once they know you are there, they seem to accept you more. This pair below would often come in the afternoon. They are truly beautiful birds.

The people in this house on the Sunshine Coast had a bird feeder on the back fence, and most afternoons these beautiful parrots would come and fill up.

Another house sit in NSW had a huge back garden and although you can't see much in this picture, there was a bird feeder in the trees, and this little table and chairs lived there so the owners, and we, could take our afternoon tea out there and watch the birds in the late afternoon. This was another garden that had king parrots visit regularly.

Our present house sit has a different kind of wildlife. There are quite a few species of birds. We have kookaburras that live in some very tall gum trees on the front lawn, but we never have any contact with them. They greet the dawn every day and say goodnight at dusk every night, but we have never been able to get close to them.

There are the usual lorrikets, several varieties actually, crested pidgeons, minahs, often galahs, and from time to time we know sulphur crested cockatoos are in the area, we can hear their screeching. We often sit and watch the lorikeets, they are so noisy and bossy. This home has a large garden of about an acre. The front lawn is sloping and planted with lots of well established trees that attract quite a few birds.

At the back we have another large area of lawn planted with many trees. Right up the back is what I call, 'the little wilderness' area. It is a little more overgrown, on rather steep land. We have seen pheasants, bush turkeys and possums.

I'm sure there are a few hidey holes for snakes up there too. One of the more unusual animals we have are some hares. They often come down to the front lawn at night and forage around. We saw a dead hare up the road one day and wondered if it was one of ours, but we have since seen ours around about.

Other visitors we have daily are a famly of pied butcher birds. They live somewhere close by. Every morning one or two of them come for bread. One of them is much tamer and he sits on a large pot by the back door, chattering to me, waiting til I bring out something for him. I haven't been able to hand feed him yet, but he is okay when I get quite close to him. He, or she, eats and chatters and talks away for quite a long time, then eventually takes off with any left overs.

There are very few cats in the area and only a few dogs, and they don't roam free, so the birds seem to feel quite safe. Having such close contact with these fabulous creatures in many different settings is one of the best things about house sitting.