They say it is lucky to be pooed on by a bird

When I was of pre-school age and early into my school years I used to be looked after by a family friend while Mum and Dad were working. Lyn transferred to me her love of baking and I have fond memories of sitting in her kitchen taking in the smell of the mixing bowl, then oven.
One day Lyn and I were returning home after a trip out...to the hairdresser, the shop...I am not sure. She put on her blinker and made the turn into her driveway and gasped, making a loud utterance simultaneously. This was unusual behaviour for Lyn. Her window had been slightly down, only about ten centimetres, but nevertheless a bird, I imagine a cheeky and cunning one, managed to aim their poo directly into the small gap to splat all over Lyn's face. It was a big one. I remember the joint feelings of surprise and puzzlement (I didn't know that could happen!), disgust and a stifled amusement. Lyn wasn't impressed. Even though they say it is lucky to be pooed on by a bird, I wouldn't put this in the lucky category.

Sera Waters
(memories from Mount Gambier)

Chicken Peace

About twenty years ago I had a small strawberry farm in Redland Bay, just outside Brisbane. It was two days after my father had passed away from cancer. I was driving my van to market using a road that was also used to transport chickens from farms to the abattoir. 

One of these poor souls had somehow escaped from it's mobile cage and landed in the short grass just off the bitumen. I spotted it with a large crow standing behind it. As I pulled up the crow quickly flew off. My thoughts were to take this lucky escapee home to live out its years with my free range ckooks at home.

As I approached I could  see that this shivering creature had had the complete back half of its flesh eaten away from its bones by the crow. My instinct was to take it home and try to nurse it back to health but its injuries were so horrific that it would probably died a slow painful death. After much deliberation I came to the conclusion that I had no choice but to put it out of its misery. I stoked its head softly a few times, shed a tear, said I was sorry and ended its miserable life with a snap of its neck.

It wasn't until a few days later, after Dad's funeral, that I realised that this decrepit bird had helped me to understand that my father whose body was being eaten away by this horrid disease was much better off in peace and out of his pain. 

To this day I still remember those small sad eyes staring at me and appreciate that rather than its planned fate of being someone's Sunday lunch it had provided me with a much greater gift which I truly value.

Colin Williams
Brisbane

Pigeon & Swallow

Pigeon

One evening, on my way to the shed, I saw a pigeon on the ground.   While this may not seem much to anyone, it was really was an unusual sight, as the only pigeons to be seen were in Kingscote.  This bird had a tag on its leg, and after much to and froing we managed to read the phone number, only to find that it was in Baccus Marsh!  Apparently the bird had flown in the opposite direction to where it was supposed to go.  It was expected in Melbourne!  The guy said to take it to where there were other pigeons, and release it.  We opened the shed door, and it flew in and landed on one of the shelves.  In the morning,when we opened up the shed it flew onto my head! It was a very strange feeling and it did not seem to want to go until it was tempted by some food in a cage, which we took to Kingscote, and then opened to release the bird.

Swallows

These birds always seem to be chatting to each other, as they line up on the pergola outside the front door. They were the first to be heard when we camped on our property.  No wonder they are called the welcome swallow! They seem to spend their lives either chatting, or flying low over the grassy areas catching insects, and often came quite close. They are very sociable

In fact, we had a couple nesting just outside our  front door.  We had built into the stonework  nesting holes, at the recommendation of a friend, and a pair of swallows decided to make a nest in one of them.  We were delighted, and watched with interest, discovering that babies had arrived as the parents were kept very busy going to and fro, obviously feeding them.  Actually, one day we shone a torch inside and confirmed that there were baby swallows in the hole.

Then the unthinkable happened.  One of our resident snakes, on his daily external tour of the house

managed to climb the wall, and ate all the baby birds.  He would not be deterred from climbing that wall – we tried everything, bar trying to injure him.  The interesting thing is that some months later, on his usual tour, as the snake was approaching the wall, a swallow came flying to the opening, and hovering in front of the hole started to chatter away very excitedly.  It appeared to us that he was trying to warn any bird that may have been in the hole!

Another time, the snake was not having much luck climbing another section of the wall, to get to the baby birds, so he climbed up one of the pillars and along the beam, then the gutter, and tried to lean over it to get to the nest.  He fell, and undeterred tried the whole procedure again.  However, the babies had fledged, and were happily chattering away at the front of the house!

Janet Martin
Kangaroo Island