More Bird Visitors & Strange Fungi

Our pond seems to attract a lot of different birds at times. At the beginning of last week we were delighted by the sudden arrival of three Kookaburras. They were busy under the olive tree but I am not sure if they were eating olives or finding crickets. Probably crickets, as Kookaburras are carnivores the experts tell us, while Magpies are omnivores. I have seen the Magpies eating the olives which had fallen off the trees.

The Kookaburras stayed for about three days and left, we think, because our trees are too young to have hollows in them for them to nest in. I think the Willy Wagtail was pleased to see them go as the Kookaburras are a threat to young Wagtail chicks...
When I came into the kitchen a couple of days after the Kookaburras left, there was a Chicken hawk sitting on the statue by the pond.I tried to leave without the Hawk seeing me but of course their eyesight is so acute, it would have seen me

back out to get the camera. It had flown into the figtree and I managed to take a photo of it through the kitchen window. Not a very good photo but still a record that it was here for a brief moment looking for prey in the Holm oak. I must say there have not been any more sparrows around the tree for which I am very thankful. Spoggies are my least favorite bird. They shriek and have absolutely no music in their soul at all.

It is interesting to see too, that the Rosellas have found the few apples I threw on the path and are happily eating away at them. They too, will eat the olives in the front of the garden but they are difficult to photograph there as the moment they see you they are off with the speed of jet fighters.

There have been no mushrooms in the garden this year despite the fact we had rains while the ground was still warm.
When we went to Mt Lofty Botanic Park a few weeks ago I found all these orange fungi under

the trees but I have no idea what they are. I noticed in a friend's garden in Willunga that there were these same orange fungi and they were growing on the woodchip mulch.
Then on Sunday at d'Arry's, we noticed this amazing fungi ,like an old fashioned big shower rose, growing high up in the tree on the trunk.
A lot of the time Nature has this wonderful way of surprising and delighting us.....
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