It's pink-and-grey - Galah day !

Pink-and-Grey - Galah Day !

When I was a kid, one day per year at school we had a "Pink-and-Grey" Gala day, where there were fetes and fund raising drives.  These days were affectionately known as "Galah-Day" by the teachers.  We all used to be expected to dress in a colour scheme of pink and grey.  There was absolutely no way known that any self-respecting school boy would wear pink to school - except for that most protected of species - the sons of a couple of the teachers who went to the same school where their parent worked.

It's funny how a simple thing can dredge up memories from decades ago.  In this case, the adab (with apologies to Frank Herbert) was stimulated by a visit from a Galah to one of our bird feeders.    

The Peanut Gallery . . .

I arrived home today to find we had visitors. A Sulphur crested cockatoo was getting stuck into our sunflowers, and about ten Little corellas were chowing down at our bird feeders.  When the realised I was watching them, they all took off in a cacophony of shrieking.  The cockatoo kept going but the corellas circled around and landed on the garage roof, screaming obscenities at me like the ingrates they are !

The peanut gallery indignantly passing judgement 

   

Revised species list for Casa da Ayre

We have had a few recent observations of additional species to our little slice of paradise, Casa da Ayre.  Namely, Tawny frogmouth owls, Indian mynas (sigh), House mice (bigger sigh) and as of this morning, Sulphur crested cockatoos (long drawn-out sigh).  There is a single Sulphur crested cockatoo feeding on our sunflower heads as I write this.

The Indian mynas were a matter of time.  They are well established in the area and I knew they'd drop in for a visit sooner or later.  Interestingly, there seems to be fewer Noisy miners about, so maybe the Indian mynas are here to take advantage of that.

We've had a bit of wet weather lately, and with the neighbours chooks and our feeding the birds sunflower seeds, we knew that rats and mice were inevitable.  They are ubiquitous across the landscape in urban and peri-urban areas, and anyone who claims otherwise should put a rat trap out overnight in their garden as an experiment.  They are like urban foxes - they turn up in the most unexpected places.  The wet weather has forced a couple of mice into our garage & shed, so I have started mitigating the problem.

The Sulphur crested cockatoo visit is problematic.  These are native birds, but can be very destructive to houses and trees if they start frequenting an area too much.  They are getting stuck into the seed heads of our sunflower patch at the moment, but will hopefully move on once the flowering is finished.    
Here is the updated bird-sighting list, new additions in italics.

Birds

Rainbow lorikeets 

Eastern rosellas

Scaley-breasted lorikeets 

King parrots

Crested pigeons (Nesting)

Noisy miners

Welcome swallows (Nesting) 

Spotted turtle doves (Nesting, introduced)

Masked lapwings

Black-backed magpies

Laughing kookaburras
Magpie-larks

Pied currawongs

Grey butcherbirds

Pied butcherbirds

Galahs

Little corellas

Dollarbirds

Silver gulls

Blue-faced honey eaters

Australasian Figbird

Eastern koel

Channel-billed cuckoo (seen flying overhead summer/autumn 2013/14, heard Spring 2014)
Tawny frogmouth owls (heard calling)
Indian mynas
Sulphur crested cockatoos.

That brings the number of species of birds observed to 26.  Adding observations from the other Orders, the all-species list is now 31 as at Tuesday 13th January 2015.  

Amphibians

Striped marsh frogs

Reptiles

Grass skink (Lampropholis delicata)

Mammals

Rattus rattus  (aka Yuckus yuckus!)
Neighbourhood cat (aka feral cat)
House mouse (Mus musculus)