A n unexpected surprise happened on the way to the wheelie bin . A Bush-stone Curlew hissed - and there was a chick . Surprise, surprise . A little more than a month ago two sittings of Curlews failed to produce one surviving hatchling. In the past two weeks "our" pair of resident Curlews have been acting strangely , disappearing , in recent days not even turning up for a feed at regular times . They have been spotted in an adjoining property where they have laid eggs in the past .
The welcome chick is from a couple which persist in nesting in a dangerous spot next to the road , visible to winged predators , a stray cat seen twice nearby , chased down a drain .
In other nature news, the Queen of the Jungle reports that she spotted the first annual arrival of a Torres Strait Pigeon on the island and heard the distinctive call of the Storm Cuckoo, which lays its eggs in the nests of Currawongs and Crows . Another small snake was seen in a rockery on our patch .
Now and again the locked car alarm has been going off for no apparent reason . It raised the possibility that the larger snake seen nearby may have taken up residence inside the warm interior . An under bonnet check with a powerful torch failed to locate any such unwelcome squatter .
Standing on a chair , with a rake , this blogger poked the mystery object and pulled it down - a rolled up length of thin black garden hose ! Not ours . How did it get up there ? Incidentally , the white object in the Curlew photo is a dry leaf. It is to be hoped that the Storm Bird call means that we are going to get some rain pronto . A Sunbird suddenly appeared near an abandoned nest on the back verandah , delivered a serenade like a canary , darted away .
