Strange Visitors

“Visits always give pleasure–if not the arrival, the departure.”

Portuguese Proverb

Hey, Lovelies.

Sometimes it seems as if the drought, and Australia’s horrendous bushfire season happened years ago. A lifetime ago. So much has happened since then. So much continues to unfold.

But those years of drought and catastrophic fires have left their mark.

As I walk my farm I see old trees dying. Even after rain. Even after things have seemed more ‘normal’. The stress of year upon year of climate change has done irreparable damage.

And now these trees are filled with strange visitors.

First it was rainbow lorikeets. Hundreds of them descended upon our farm last month, stripping flowers from the gum trees and getting drunk and raucous on nectar. These are not our usual birds. They have been driven here by hunger after their own home territory was decimated by fire.

The lorikeets moved on, and now we have enormous flocks of native pigeons visiting here. So many birds that when they lift out of the trees en masse the sky darkens and the noise of their wings is deafening. They are stripping the figs and camphor laurels of fruit.

There are smaller flocks of rosellas and orioles and cuckooo-shrikes here too.

More than our fair share of kookaburras, finches and birds of prey.

Birds displaced by fire and drought. Hungry. Far from home.

I wonder if they will be able to return to the land that was once their own territory within this lifetime. Certainly there is so much habitat lost that will take generations to recover, if it ever does.

Our local birds call to the strangers. I wonder what they are saying. I hope they let them know that they are welcome.

We must all look after each other in these changing times.

Love, hugs and birdsong, Nicole xx

Hi! I'm Nicole Cody. I am a writer, psychic, metaphysical teacher and organic farmer. I love to read, cook, walk on the beach, dance in the rain and grow things. Sometimes, to entertain my cows, I dance in my gumboots. Gumboot dancing is very under-rated.
Posts created 3089

6 thoughts on “Strange Visitors

  1. When I read the Portuguese Proverb I had to smile to myself
    The Millennium Drought created an influx of Little Corellas in the Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley
    These native birds are very destructive in their flocks of thousands and are the bane
    of many local farmers and grape growers

    1. They can be destructive – they remind me of hungry teenagers. They eat you out of house and home, leave a mess everywhere and bang the screen door on their way out to a friend’s house in search of more snacks when your pantry runs dry!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Posts

Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel.

Back To Top
%d bloggers like this: