Australia Day

On my walk yesterday, as if on cue, a whipbird lept up from ground cover which was mostly hydrangeas, and perched on top of an old poker flower stem. Less than 10 metres away, he looked at me quizzically, twitched and jerked, then let go his wonderful cracking call. His mate, slightly duller in colour, olivey, lept up into a heath shrub even closer and also looked at me, without answering her mate's call. They remained watching me for a time, unusually, as whipbirds seem to be always moving, before hop hopping off, making their scritchy small talk.
A little further on, just as I left our place, a bronzewing pidgeon flashed arrowlike across in front of me, it's wings beating rythmically, providing its strong flight. With the screeching of white cockies some way off and crows cawing from high, I saw eastern rosellas flying through trees ahead, their bright green rump shining almost irridescently, as it does when they fly.
A good start for Australia Day! Mudlarks, black cockies, crimson rosellas and a solitary willy wagtail were others seen shortly after. It made me think what a wonderful place Australia is.
On my way back a delightful young lady, Fiona, who lives with partner Lance in Captain Petrie's old residence in Quinn Rd., gave me a baking dish full of duck eggs covered by a blue tea towel. Reaching Agnes St., I thought if I saw Allison I'd offer her some eggs, there being so many. A car came down a drive from the high side and stopped, the driver winding down his window to say hello. It was new neighbour John, an elderly Scotsman who recently bought the cottage to escape the contruction noise at his house in Canterbury. The house next door to his has been demolished and a block of units is going up. He and wife Margaret couldn't stand the noise so they bought a get away in Gembrook, in the same street where their daughter lives with another lady. They have a farm in Scotland and spend six months alternately in each country. Despite their advanced years they've renovated the garden with great energy and result.
John told me I'd better ask Margaret if she wanted some duck eggs, so as he drove off I walked into their place to talk to Margaret who was in the garden. She only wanted two she said, one each for her and John, for breakfast a little later, and she put them in her gardening glove. Beneath our feet there were thousands of sugar ants boiling in and out of several holes. She said she had planned to buy some dust to kill them, but wasn't going to now, after seeing the echidna a couple of times, and all his diggings in the bank out the front. There really is something amazing about echidnas, watching them is an experience to cherish, and I could tell Margaret was touched just as I have been lately. Her eyes lit up as she spoke.
A good start to Australia Day!