The Passing Parade
One of the exciting things about living here is viewing the ‘passing parade’. Whatever the season, there is always something new to observe, that’s if you are really looking. This Spring has been truly remarkable, probably because of the excessive rain we’ve had.
I have seen new plants flowering out along the road and in the paddocks. Many of them are wild orchids in purple, pink, yellow, and white and there is a dark pink one that has a chocolate perfume. There are many of these growing in the house lawn and that makes me reluctant to mow the grass. Eventually I have to or be prepared to go on a jungle safari when I leave the house.
And this year, the Wood Ducks brought three batches of ducklings to the house dam. Wood ducks nest in the hollows of the big gum trees, not on the ground as domestic ducks do. When the parent ducks move their ducklings from the tree, they herd them to the dam. Mother leads the way, the ducklings huddle in a close group and dad brings up the rear. As they walk, the parents keep looking around for predators and at a small sound from them, the ducklings drop down into the grass and cannot be seen until the parents decide to keep moving.
There was one group I watched from afar that had 12 little ones. Six days later mother duck was alone with the 12 ducklings. I can only imagine that father duck lost his life to a marauding fox by trying to lead it away from his brood, as they do. Mother duck looked after the ducklings until they were able to fly away. The really sad thing about this is that these ducks mate for life, so that was her last brood. I do not know what their life span is.
So far I have seen deer, small kangaroos with joeys in the pouch, a variety of parrots from green grass ones to rosellas to King parrots. There were three groups of wrens nesting in the shrubs in the garden, as well as a honey-eater, lots of kookaburras nearby, thrushes, and little finches nesting in the climbers.
So Nature becomes my cinema for the environment around me. Join us.
