also jet lag – day 3.
the long flight from san francisco has definitely taken its toll on this old body. melatonin again last night. woke to a fresh morning reminiscent of my first days in delhi more than 30 years ago. an end-of-winter crispness in the air.
there is an abundance of birds in the neighborhood, but none more welcoming than the magpies. these melodious black and white characters have made it known that they wouldn’t mind being fed. the two teenaged boys next door have shown me how the magpies fly onto the lowest branches of a nearby tree so they can receive morsels offered to them in a little clip, so they can snap up the tasties without wounding the hand that feeds them.
the magpies search our lawn for edibles, and when i’ve gone out to meet them, they’ve shown not the least shyness in walking right up to me as if to say, “what do you have for me today?” they understand the fine art of bending humans to their will. i anticipate adding “bird feed” to the regular shopping list.
the birder in the family, pernille, is already out on the back deck every morning with her binoculars and her “birds of australia” book by her side. she’s already identified a handful of species. wikipedia reports 898 bird species in australia, fully one in ten of the world’s unique bird species, making this land the most diverse in the world for avian life.
it seems a gross understatement to say birding is going to be exciting here.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/01/birds-australia-world-greatest-diversity
not that heinlein 