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.

Grapes, bushfires and birds

We have just harvested our grapes. Though not as prolific and luscious as last year, there is still a sizeable crop and they taste beautifully sweet. We have adark red variety which is under bird netting to stop the birds from cleaning out the entire crop before they even change to their ripe colouration.
I was listening to the radio when there was a discussion with one of the Yarra Valley vintners. Their grapes had been affected by smoke from the bushfires raging throughout February. As a result once the first batch had been pressed, the taint from the smoke had made its way into the vintage. Thus the grape harvest had to be abandoned, the nets pulled off and the remaining grapes were available to the wildlife. I imagine the birds were able to have a feast.
I had been wondering how the bird population is surviving as food in the fire affected areas must be in short supply. Perhaps this grape harvest disaster (only for some of the Yarra Valley producers) will ensure that the lovely, raucous native birds of the Australian bush can survive for long enough before the bush regenerates and provides their normal food.

Spring is here!

Yeah! finally the days are lengthening, bulbs are flowering and sadly the grass has risen enough to be mowed again. Though to call it grass is somewhat a misnomer as the weeds outnumber the real grass. The lack of watering over the last few summers, due to water restrictions has seen to that.
The Magnolia tree has bloomed and now is covered in new green leaves. The hyacinths are just about to finish, as are the daffodils. My lovely Camellia's are also nearly finished their flowering as are some of the Azalea's.

My Plum tree is flowering, though rather lopsidedly as the "other half" got carried away when pruning it in July. However, neither the Persimmon Tree or the Ginko tree are showing any signs of bud burst or leaf.
One of the joys of Spring in Melbourne is the antics of the swooping bird population. I haven't been attacked by a Magpie yet, though my son on bicycle has. The Masked Plover's have raised a chick and annoy us with frequent warning cries and constant dive bombing when anyone approaches.

And to top it off the water tanks are completely full. Summer here we come!