Ron's blog

Our birds have had a strange winter to deal with: overcast most days instead of sunny, cold days, but some warmer nights as the clouds keep the heat in.

A quick update on recent events. Firstly Curly the one-eyed currawong is still with us, and he seems to be doing quite nicely feeding himself despite his severe handicap. However, i think he is no longer associating with the other currawongs, but has attached hiimself to Vicky Magpie's family. Whether they approve or not I don't know, but he comes and goes when they come and go. He has become a bit more nervous in coming down to get food from us, though.

Our magpies have been late this year with their babies. We understand why for Vicky's family, because after Maggie's passing it was July before Vicky settled on a new husband, a magpie from a long way away called Bertie. They then took a while to settle in and for Bertie to get to know the local situation.

Here is Curly, the one-eyed currawong. Curly and the winter currawong mob (maybe a hundred birds) left for greener pastures about four weeks ago, but I've been looking for curly in case he decided to stay for the summer.

Vicky and her new fellow, Bertie, have settled in and Vicky is now tending her nest. We are not sure whether she has hatched eggs, and we haven't been able to bring out our telescope due to the excessive wind and the big dust storms, which have been reported around the world. (We have to put the telescope in our breakfast room with the door wide open.)