My Burra Family: August 2018

Winter is a quiet time for the Tapas Bar & my Blog. The birds are neither breeding nor raising bubs, so there is little agro. Also the days are short and cold – not conducive to spending long hours outdoors filming.
When it’s like this I still have my Kookaburra Family. My stalwarts. They are a constant in my life. They’re here every day and seem to truly enjoy my company.

Boof cuddling in under the watchful eye of Brave Baby

Boof & I in a deep and meaningful

This winter however, was different. We’ve just exited the warmest winter since records started so I’m not sure if I’ve got so many photos due to the warmer weather & the birds obliging, or the fact I spent more time out there taking them. So Please…………..

...…….Keep Reading

When I said there was less agro due to winter, there is always the exception to the rule & that’s Cedrick & Daphne the Lorikeets. They’re not testosterone driven. They’re not jealously guarding the Tapas Bar as a food source for their bubs. These guys just love to fight. They don’t care who. They don’t care when. Each other. Different species. Doesn’t matter.

WHO?? Little ol me.

Aggressive? Not little ol me.

Well, maybe just a tad!

It's not the size of the dog in the fight.

It's the size of the fight in the dog.

NEVER! NEVER say bite me to a Lorikeet

Haaaaalitosis. Halitosis.

Do I really have bad breath????

Answer carefully Cedrick!

Here's my answer Daphne!!!

SURPRISE! Cedrick

NOT NOW!!!! Daphne's here

Bacon Snakes are always a good source of funny photos. The Kookaburras just LOVE them, and they put themselves in all sorts of unusual positions trying to release them.

How I LOVE my Bacon Snakes.

Unless they've been tied down

This is going to look ugly

Bugger, can't go any further this way.

I'll have to try the other direction.

OH SHIT!! If he lets go now

that's going to fling me all the way to the other side of the bay

just like a sling-shot

He's a funny bugger is our Brad

For those that follow my blog will know I have a couple of Burmese cats that co-share the veranda with my Kookaburra Family. It’s a tenuous relationship, however, it works. 7 years and there’s been no fatalities on either side. Having said that I came home last month & Devil greeted me at the front door like he usually does, except this time he was on the outside. How had he got out. I checked my GoPro footage for the day and caught a glimpse of him limping around the backyard. Now for those that own a Burmese any of the following scenarios could have been true as they are notoriously clumsy. Lying in the sun on the edge of the veranda he rolled over – and fell off. Wrestled with Hyde, his bigger brother, and was thrown off the veranda, or 1 of my Kookaburra Family was on the railing & Devil dived up, missed the bird and sailed straight over the edge. I’ll never know.

So the other night I was watching TV with both the cats curled up asleep on my headrest, when Hyde heard something that caught his attention? He was down & scratching around under a trophy cabinet I have in the lounge room. His insistence soon had Devils attention so now both cats were trying to reach something tucked out of reach. This went for some minutes with me thinking it was probably a coachroach (they fly in from the waterfront attracted to the veranda lights). So both cats are at one end totally fixed when a little grey blur dashes out from the other end a slipped under my bedroom door. I was the only one to notice. I opened the door, moved all furniture away from the walls and moved the cats in. All they wanted to do was go back to the cabinet. So I locked them in my bedroom. After ½ an hour of meowing to come out I reluctantly opened my door. They had completely lost interest in the mouse/rat.
I sat them on my lap and read them the riot act. I told them how bitterly disappoint I was that 2 cats were best by a bloody mouse. THEY WERE A DISGRACE TO THE FELINE RACE.
With that I went to bed. When I woke in the morning all I can say is it was like a scene from the Godfather. On the foot of my bed was a dead mouse. Seems my cats had sent me a message I couldn’t refuse.
My faith in my 2 boys restored, the mouse was confiscated for a greater good. I’ve wanted a mouse for ages to present to my Kookaburra Family, and now I had one.
I couldn’t wait to set this guy up on the Tapas Bar for the clan. I set up both my GoPro camera up at different angles as I didn’t want to miss one second of what would transpire.
And what transpired was a HUGE BLOODY DISAPPOINTMENT. They ignored it for 7 minutes in preference of some chicken & chicken bones I had also served up.

Here's the video
https://youtu.be/FV87q2HtE5g
I have posted plenty of photos on my blog of “Koobbits” A Koobbit is a Kookaburra that can morph into a Rabbit. I think they do this to scare the others away as shown in these next photos. Why a Rabbit would scare a Kookaburra defies logic, but there you go, you've got to be a Kookaburra to get it. Well it seems Pernicious the Pee Wee also has this ability to turn into a Koobbit. This has never been filmed before and seems to have gone inter-species.

GO AWAY BROTHER. Don't make me morph

I warned you!

Pernicious trying her hand at morphing

Boof morphing into a Koobbit.

Not dissimilar to the Regan head spinning scene in the Exorcist,

but much, much faster

Something of interest is happening right now, and that’s the transition of one of my Satin Bowerbird boys from juvenile to adult. At age 7 they change from a “Green Bird” to a “Black bird”. The following family photos show Brad (the adult male), then Angelina (the mother) followed by Knox (the transitional boy) and finally Shiloh (the youngest boy). Note the difference in the beaks between Knox & Shiloh. Knox’s beak has already turned cream. Soon his green feathers will change to black like his dad. I’m looking forward to bringing you those photos as I haven’t seen that yet myself.

Brad

Angelina

Knox (In transition)

Shiloh

I try to link all my photos to a story as I have above. These next few are just photos for photos sake.

Why do I have to move?

Why is that your seat?

In the winter it's close enough to the radiator so I'm warm but not so close I sweat, and in the summer, it gets a nice cross-breeze by opening up windows here & here. It also points to the TV not at a direct angle so that I can converse with others in the room but not so indirect where the picture looks fuzzy.