Hawk Attack

Yesterday I was about to get in the car to go to town when an all-fired ruckus broke out behind the house. Running round, we saw a massive flock of galahs and rosellas and such birds crazily swirling here and there and crying out desperately as they wheeled here and there.

Then I noticed some hawk-like birds in amongst them. It was very hard to focus on them and get a clear view of exactly what they were, but it was clearly an attack upon the flock birds.

No sooner had we understood what was happening, than at least thirty or more crows flew into the melee and started swirling around with the others. Then some magpies also entered the fray. Finally we understood what was happening: the crows and magpies were confusing the skies. Soon all the flock birds had gained the safety of the tall trees along the roadside. We completely lost sight of the hawks by then, but for sure they didn't catch anyone, because there were no encounters in the sky. At last the crows and magpies dispersed, many going also to the tall trees where the flock birds were hiding. As if nothing had happened, all was quiet.

It never ceases to amaze us how the birds help each other. Gitie has told you how the rosellas and others will stand guard over the magpie nest while magpie mum and dad go to look for a bite to eat.

On another matter, I mentioned how little pied butcherbird Chuckie had disappeared. Still gone. This is one of the few occasions when we haven't been told what happened. Did Chuckie meet with an accident, or move away? Once they get beyong the nest stage and soon after that, our birds have had very few losses, so we like to think Chuckie is out there embarking on his independent life somewhere.