....New birds in Tineke's Garden

It has been very hot here for the last few days and today it is 40*C outside. So we have been a bit worried about the second family Mr&Mrs  Willy Wagtail have hatched since the new year. There are only three of them because we wondered if a Tawny Frogmouth might have kidnapped one because they were sitting in the  the patio vines too for a couple of days....
The little babies decided they could leave the nest but they finished up on the patio bricks, still unable to fly at this stage. Mum and Dad are still busily feeding them and we can watch them through our sitting room glass door while having a cup of tea.

You can see how little they are sitting on the patio bricks. I have put water there for them but it is only the parents that seem to drink.
What has really surprised us is that suddenly there are three,great ,big, (compared to the little baby birds above) Grey Currawongs hanging around the bird bath, keeping all the other little birds away from the water. This is at the front of our house. Grey Currawongs usually live in scrub country, like the Mallee or the Adelaide hills and are awful nest robbers....They look black but they must be the Grey Currawongs as Black ones live only on the East coast of Australia.

The only redeeming feature is their melodious call which can reverberate over the countryside.
They mostly live on insects they find in the forest litter and they also pull bark off the gumtrees to find insects there. And as I said before they will rob the nests of other birds in the Springtime when all the birds are busy hatching baby birds....
Their size is 500mm (which is 50cm to my mind) so you can see by using a ruler how long they are. They seem to have very savage looking beaks.....don't they...

Now, a kinder but also noisy bird is the Rainbow Lorikeet, this one is sitting on its own for the moment but soon a dozen or more will arrive and they squeak and squawk and push each other around in the water, if there is any left that is...
They live mostly in the top of trees on the eucalyptus flowers and their noise can be quite deafening.....

This pair of Kangaroos were in the garden earlier last year in the winter time when our garden is green instead of brown like it is in the summer.
The sun burns everything off in our hot summer and I always think the plants respond to the heat like your plants in the Northern hemisphere respond to the snow and ice... by going under ground and waiting for kinder weather.... Don't forget to click on the photos to get a closer look at the birds and kangaroos.....