todayiamadaisy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
todayiamadaisy) wrote2006-06-01 03:16 pm
todayiamadaisy) wrote2006-06-01 03:16 pm
When in doubt, stand and look slender
Coming up a side street, back from buying the papers, this morning, I could hear the most dreadful avian ruckus. Turning the corner onto my street, I came face to face with hard-core aerial warfare: a mass of large birds swooping and squawking. As far as I could tell amidst the chaos, there seemed to be the full complement of ten recently arrived magpies, the three wattlebirds from the side street, the three crows that live in my garden and a handful of seagulls. It all seemed a bit odd, I must say. They're all large, bossy, territorial birds, certainly, but they usually co-exist reasonably peacefully, having decided that there is leftover cat food and stale bread for all.
Then I realised that at the centre of the maelstrom was a barn owl. What a lovely thing! But what was it still doing up at that hour? Anyway, it did the sensible thing and flew south, landing in a tree across the street, beyond the edge of the other birds' territory, and they all perched on roofs and power lines, carrolling and cawing victory.
So I got out my Complete Book of Australian Birds and read about barn owls during breakfast, learning the astonishing fact that when approached by an intruder, barn owls "stand bolt upright and look very slender". If only I could respond to danger like that.
I was also hugely entertained this morning to read the label of the new kind of cat food I bought the other day, discovering that it is "98% fat free". Lost owls won't be the only slender creatures in my garden! (Although, to be fair to Miss Pink, she is a long, lean beastie already; ageing now, but a supermodel in her day).
Then I realised that at the centre of the maelstrom was a barn owl. What a lovely thing! But what was it still doing up at that hour? Anyway, it did the sensible thing and flew south, landing in a tree across the street, beyond the edge of the other birds' territory, and they all perched on roofs and power lines, carrolling and cawing victory.
So I got out my Complete Book of Australian Birds and read about barn owls during breakfast, learning the astonishing fact that when approached by an intruder, barn owls "stand bolt upright and look very slender". If only I could respond to danger like that.
I was also hugely entertained this morning to read the label of the new kind of cat food I bought the other day, discovering that it is "98% fat free". Lost owls won't be the only slender creatures in my garden! (Although, to be fair to Miss Pink, she is a long, lean beastie already; ageing now, but a supermodel in her day).