waggawerewolf27 wrote:Last night we were supposed to have a nice pink shade of pink moon but it was too cloudy to see. Did anyone see it?
I was out late shopping last night near Sevenoaks and there was a clear sky with what I'd call a golden dollar moon! (Bit like this, that is, but without the kangaroos.
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waggawerewolf27 wrote:Yes, our magpies have a sort of musical "kyogle" sound to them, which as a child I found wonderful
. However, they migrate, & according to our daily fishwrap, they seem to have gone south, past Wollongong. By the way, Kyogle, in Northern New South Wales, is an actual place.
It does sound a bit like that, doesn't it? I also once heard an American visitor, new to Australia, describe them as sounding like R2D2!!
I prefer something I once read — I forget the author, but it was an Aussie — describing our magpies' song as them rolling the sunshine around in their throats. That's what I always think of when I hear them.
Interestingly, our magpies in Inverloch (my home town) haven't been known to swoop anyone for many years — they did when I was little, but it's as if, as the town has grown, they've got more used to humans. I haven't seen or heard of an attack for about three decades!
One time a few years ago, as I was walking in the next street to ours (where my parents live, I mean), it was just about sunset and there were three young magpies foraging on a front lawn. Then two more, up in a gum tree overhead, suddenly gave a few clear, ringing calls, and the ones on the ground flew up to join them in the branches. I guess they must have been the parents calling "Come home, time for bed!" Aussie magpies live in family groups and the "teenage" young stay with their parents and help to raise the next lot of chicks, until they themselves are old enough to go off and start their own families.
Another time, also in Inverloch, I was walking our dog when I saw, on another front lawn, a female magpie (grey back rather than white) feeding her young one, who was calling out "
kea-kea-kea-kea-kea!" in that ear-splitting way baby magpies have — obviously translatable as "Mum, Mum, feed me, feed me, feed me, I'm staaaaaarving, Muuuuuuum!!" Mum Magpie was looking a bit exasperated as she dug up grubs with her beak and stuffed them into her offspring's gaping gullet. Near them, I was delighted to spot an Eastern rosella (the one from the tomato sauce label — Wagga will know what I mean!) feeding very quietly on the ground and apparently trying to ignore the maggies. But the young magpie's squeals grew so loud and insistent that finally the rosella leapt into the air, gave a few shrill cries of her own, and dive-bombed the mother and baby magpies until they flew away and left her in peace. I couldn't stop laughing!!
Back to the weather, it's sunny here in South-east England (it's even going over 20°C, which is "warm" here!), but of course, we can't go out anywhere much...
I'm also "attending" church online when I can and deeply grateful to still have my full-time job and to be in a very special and supportive community (I live and work at a
Christian Science nursing facility). I hope everyone else in the NarniaWeb family is also safe and well and that, in the midst of all we're going through, you'll still have a wonderful and peaceful Easter full of joy and blessings.