Swooping Season

Today is beautiful. Melbourne spring sunshine comes and goes, but is beautiful after what seems like a grey winter. The grass is growing quickly, as are the weeds. The local birds have also felt the spring calling.
The Masked Lapwing has nearly finished raising its first two chicks. I am waiting to see if it has another two later on in summer. We hear its loud, penetrating calls early in the morning outside the bedroom window as it alerts its young to possible dangers. This seem to happen every few minutes and is a result of the birds nesting in a busy urban area.
The Magpies have been swooping cyclists and runners for a couple of weeks now. My youngest was cycling to school the other day by a route which misses the worst of the Magpies. Unfortunately, the route coincided with a maniac driver who nearly hit him. Both the rider and bike were forced off the road onto the kerb with some attendant damage. A shaken boy was scathing of the car driver but fortunately had good enough reflexes not to get hurt.
Smaller birds are fighting off the huge black Crows and the Little Wattlebird seems to be flirting with a mate. A beautiful Eastern Rosella flew past the car recently and plenty of Magpie Larks are fighting car mirrors in a vain attempt to repel their images.
I do hope the Australian birds continue to survive the drought, fires and consequent lack of feed and habitat this year.