Magpie accused of Murder.....

This magpie hotly denied he had killed the
Willy Wagtail, "I did not do it " he said "you must be mistaking me for another bird"
I had seen him though, the Wagtail flew onto the patio and the Magpie swooped in after him snapped his beak and hit Wagtail on the side....
You can see the evidence below, dead as a door nail and his feet in a defensive position on the bricks of the patio.....

If we put the local mob of Magpies in a line up
how would we recognize the culprit... they all look the same don't they...black and white...
The Magpie's defense was quite compelling: Wagtail had indeed been swooping him relentlessly as he was feeding on the olives which had appeared after mowing. Wagtail did not let up because he saw a threat to his chicks lately hatched in a nest close by in the Holm oak.
The case was dismissed and I gave the Wagtail a decent burial under the Walnut tree...

What a surprise it was too, to find the Quondongs ripening and falling on the ground, we were able to pick the first few to put in the blue dish. Quondongs are rich in vitamin C apparently, so they are a good addition to our diet. They are quite tart, raw and I do prefer to lightly steam them. I'll shred them finely raw and put them through the salad tomorrow and see if they are more palatable that way. I have steamed them with broad beans and they are delicious that way.

The other surprise was to see the first Waterlily for the season, the white streak at the side is the fountain splashing in the pond.
The white faced Heron is still around too, poking his beak into the water weed and looking for the frogs or the goldfish. He is not so shy anymore as he will stay where he is, despite the fact I have appeared at the kitchen window. The Black ducks have disappeared so I hope they are busy hatching and raising their many eggs. Ducks do seem to lay an awful lot of eggs....

The Alyogyne huegelii or native Hibiscus which is a native of South Australia , mostly of the Eyre Peninsula, never ceases to amaze me. It has the most intense blue/purple flowers at this time of the year and will last in a vase without any water for a fortnight at a time. The only problem is that the stems are very,very short. I find it best to pick them and then tie the stems with string or wire to keep them together in a small vase.
The garden is starting to look just great and I feel perhaps I need to put on a peasant lunch of breads and cheeses and local reds and ask all my friends around for a walk around afterwards to see and admire what is flowering .......