Defensive Bush stone-Curlew , now protecting two eggs ,on the left, near carport and walkway . Being a Curlew carer requires you to cut up large, frozen rolls of dog food with a sharp knife , risking slipping and slashing your fingers and developing RSI , without mention in dispatches .
The birds, also known as Bush thick knees, often wail at night and have been associated with death, featuring in many Aboriginal stories; the cry said to be a mother mourning the loss of a child.
In northern parts of Queensland the nocturnal cry of a Curlew is regarded as the dead returning to the Dreaming.
In Xavier Herbert's novel Poor Fellow My Country , he wrote that Curlews call the spirits of souls wanting to be born . Xavier first heard the expression poor fellow my country while working in the Kahlin Aboriginal Compound , Darwin .
