Friday 25 August 2017

A Kookaburra with an extraordinary trust.


Every now and then we are confronted with a story that beggars belief. I believe this is one of those stories.
Boss, the breeding male in my Kookaburra family and I have a relationship that now goes back 8 years, but this story is something that happened in January 2015.


One afternoon Boss came in with a dreadful wound to his eye. I thought of calling wires, but the downside to that was they would remove Boss for treatment, later to release him back to his territory. Why this wasn’t a consideration is that if you remove a Kookaburra from its territory for even a shot period (a week or so), the others would see it as an intruder and drive it away or worse, kill it. This would be catastrophic to my Kooka family as Boss was the breeding male and my good mate.


I got onto Birds of Oz (a birding FB site). On here are a number of vet nurses, bird carers and Dr Hamish Baron - Leading vet in the avian and exotics field from Sydney Uni. I reached out to them for advice. Their advice was to treat him with a saline solution to keep the wound clean and infection free.

God, how do I administer that I thought? The only solution I could come up with was to spray his eye with a spray bottle, but he was a wild bird, how was he going to react to that?
And this is where my story becomes extraordinary, Boss let me spray his eye. I can’t think of a thing more alien to him that what I was doing. You need to check out the video at the end of this post.

Normally Boss would come in of an arvo for our bonding sessions, but this was different. He was visiting first thing in the morning as well as late in the arvo. It was as if he was aware of his treatment programme. So every morning & every arvo I would spray his eye with a warm saline solution followed by a couple of close up photos to post on the Birds of Oz FB page.

We had a couple of teething problems on day one, with Boss wanting to bite the squirter. But he soon understood its role and from here on let me spray his eye.


We slipped into a routine for the next 3 weeks. Every morning & every afternoon, he would arrive for treatment.



By the 8th, Boss’s eye looked much better. The wound was a fraction of its original size. The eye was still weeping, but that was to be expected. The saline solution was doing its job.






The photos from the 10th and his eye looked terrific.  The wound had almost healed over.





I had sent a series of photos to Dr Hamish Baron @ the Uni who advised while the eye was looking good, he had probably damaged his tear duct beyond repair and would most likely weep for the rest of his life.
Again this bird did something that defies belief. In the 3rd week he came in with a small twig stuck in the wound. He let me remove it with a pair of tweezers. WOW was all I could think.




Three days later, the 23rd to be precise, Boss decided he no longer needed treatment.
Just like that.
After the 23rd he wouldn’t let me spray his eye again. While he still came in everyday, as soon as I produced the spray bottle he would fly off. His intention was pretty obvious.



Hamish was right, well sort of. These next couple of photos were taken 6 months later, and as you can see, his eye is still weeping, but not much.


2 years on and check out the next photos. The weeping has stopped. It’s hard to see that he ever had an eye wound.

What resilient, tough critters Kookaburras are.
Finally……………………How he got the wound was a bit of a mystery, but if you’ve ever seen them grab a bug in the bushes they fly in face first. I’ve sat on my veranda and watched & thought “what ungainly birds they are”. Out the front I have a Lemon tree that has 2” thorns all over it. At certain times it gets invaded by stink bugs. While I’ve never seen my Kookas feast on them, boy, I can tell when they have when they come in to me for a feed at the end of the day. They take my breath away. They stink. Just while we’re on that, you may be thinking what does a Kookaburra normally smell like? Well it’s quite sweet actually, a bit earthy but quite pleasant.
Check out the video. It puts it all in context.
 https://youtu.be/iFtIEZVDA5Q

BTW, as it turns out, he's a clumsy bastard. That wasn’t to be his only wound, but this last photo is for yet another story.

See you all again soon with more stories & photos.
If you enjoyed this post, here's a link to my latest post;
https://bradsburras.blogspot.com/2021/05/cedrick-nasty-lorikeet.html







Tuesday 8 August 2017

Birding with a GoPro camera


In my last blog, the days were getting shorter & cooler. Winter was starting.
Now the days are getting longer & warmer.
What an ‘Indian Summer’ winter turned out to be. And because it’s been such a mild winter I think it’s confused Mother Nature. We’re still 3 weeks from spring & my Jasmin’s gone into flower.
Red the Red Wattlebird has been aggressive for the last couple of weeks, giving all the other birds a hard time. This can mean only I thing. He’s looking to get laid. His testosterone must be coursing strong in his veins.
It’s so with the others too I suspect. Boss, the head of my Kookaburra family has started to take food I give him to his mate Bashful. This is usually a precursor to breeding. Their breeding season isn't normally until October/November.


Boss. meat in mouth, off to find Bashful
His true love.
Shiloh the Bowerbird & Mal the Noisy Miner just don’t get on & it doesn’t matter what season it is. No testosterone involved here. These two just don’t get on.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Here it's worth 3 words.
F U Mal!
This period should certainly lend itself to more interesting photos, so I’m looking forward to it, but at this stage all the action has happened out of camera view. That’s bound to change, sooner or later they’ll do something interesting in front of Headley (that’s my GoPro Camera – everything at the Tapas Bar has to have a name, including the bird feeding station that I call.... the Tapas BarJ).
Well actually something did happen in front of Headley recently. Have you read the fable of the Goose that laid the Golden Egg? It didn't end well for the Goose. The upshot of this was the Farmer cuts the Goose open to get to the Golden Eggs, killing the Goose and his fortune. Well, have a look at the video at the end of this blog for a laugh.

For the love of God....
S.T.O.P!!!
While we’re on my Kookaburra clan, I will say I’m always gobsmacked at their level of trust. 






Boof, this years bub, and I have hit it off. I think the two of us have a special relationship, very much like the one I formed with his dad, Boss. Well this young Kookaburra is too cool for school. Talk about one chilled out bird. I was going to go downstairs to set-up the Tapas Bar for the day after I’d given Boof a bit of TLC, so I had in my hand some blue things for Brad the Bowerbird.


I wondered what Boof would do if I placed a blue ring on his beak.
Hoops? Hoops?
What is this game?

He did nothing. That surprised me a bit as I can’t imagine anything more alien to happen to a Kookaburra. I did expect him to shake it off, but no, he just stood there probably thinking WTF.


OK, what do I do next?
I don't get it. 
I'm guessing you have to be Human to appreciate it.
The thing I like most about Headley is his mobility. If you can get the birds to come to you I can’t recommend strongly enough the purchase of a GoPro camera. Everything about my birding photography set-up is that they are all portable. I can move Headley, the Tapas Bar & the Tranquillity Pool to give me different angles & backgrounds to keep my photos interesting.


The next lot of photos I’ve moved the Tranquillity Pool and Headley to have a view over the water.



You're a small plan sitting on the landing strip
You look up to see a Jumbo about to land on you
What do you say.............


What do you think he says????
WHAT....THE....FU


That was close. Lucky I'm small and nimble.


You big oaf. Watch where you're landing next time
If I replace the Tranquillity Pool with the Tapas Bar, same background, different foreground. Add some flowers & stuff for colour & texture and........... voilĂ .
.



Burras & Blossoms

You're supposed to admire them

Not eat them.
You're a goddamn Kookaburra. Act like one.
People are watching.
Then I can move Headley to the grass for a completely different set of photos and aspects.

Don't come between a Drake & his betrothed.
Not quite the love bite this young guy was expecting.

The trouble maker.
She flirts, others pay
The local nosh-up at my place
These guys are great recyclers. No wastage with them around.
No food stuff goes into my bin.



Because Headley is waterproof, he can be positioned in the Tranquillity Pool. When placed in The Tranquillity Pool and that’s moved to a garden background, yet a different view.


This is Pernicious the Pee Wee or Magpie-lark.
These guys are insect eaters.
Hell of an insect she has here.

Lastly we have my most common view – the Tapas Bar butted up to the Tranquillity Pool. This gets me any action that might also happen in the Tranquillity Pool while my main focus is on the food served on the Tapas Bar.
The Art of War
Brad & Red prepare to do battle.

The things Headley catches.
Can you see the rabbit in this photo.
I call them Koobbits

Not her best side

Willy the Wagtail with something to say.
Such happy chirpy birds


Love is in the air everywhere I look around
Love is in the air every sight and every sound
And I don't know if I'm being foolish
Don't know if I'm being wise
But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when I look in your eyes.

It's all in.............................

.....................the eyes.

God, how these guys like their bacon snakes.
Here's a battle of wills. Who will let go first?

Not quite....................

50 shades of............
I’m also doing up my yard with a view of attracting small Finches & Wrens back. The first step is to clear out the old plants, then chip-bark the gardens to keep the weeds down. I’ve place a big pot in as a birdbath. It didn’t take long for the birds to discover it. More on the garden make-over later.


Reflections of Jurassic Park



This guy is the embodiment of a young child
What fun he's having.
Check out his video
Well, that's all for this post, check out the following videos for a bit of fun.
This last photo is myself and my two sisters. Could there be any wonder I would turn into the heartbreaker I did?


The Kookaburra that laid the Golden Egg



Wattlebird - times of pure fun



Boof with his dad Boss