If you live out "in the bush" in Australia you don't have any need for an alarm clock. The Kookaburra also known as "The Laughing Kookaburra," "The Laughing Jackass," and "Hawkesbury Clock," are members of the kingfisher family. They get up before the sun comes up and make sure you do too! Kookaburras usually live in groups of three or more. We must be really "tinny" (lucky) here because our kookaburra family has about ten members. They have established our thirty acres as their "humpy" (home) and every morning they fly to each corner and announce to everyone that this land is theirs. It starts at about 5 am and goes on for about two hours. When I first moved here, I couldn't go back to sleep from the "dog's breakfast" (state of chaos) from these little guys. Now, after a year in Oz, I find it quite relaxing.
Click on the link to see the kookaburra in action. Remember, times that by ten and let it play for 2 hours to get the full effect of what we experience each day!
Every morning at approximately 8:30 am, my Mom has to go out and feed "the family" which consists of Edison, Nobel and their babies. (We name all of our birds after famous inventors... except for our King Parrots, "Elvis & Priscilla.") First thing in the morning these birds "could eat a horse and chase the rider!" (They are absolutely famished.) Our kookaburra friends have become so used to us that we can hand feed them and pat them now.
Kookaburras are "true blue" Aussies because they have "smoko" twice a day just like we do. They usually eat some kind of meat... lizards and snakes are the main staples in their diet. But, there's no way Mom is going to pick up either one of those so they just get strip steak from us that they proceed to beat to a pulp on our deck. Kookaburras are great hunters and we have seen them kill snakes by carrying them up very high in the sky and letting them drop to the ground. Then, of course, they have to beat them to a pulp before they will eat them. It's pretty interesting and also a "fair cow" (disagreeable thing) at same time. Every day Edison tenderizes his "tucker" (food) on our deck and he doesn't "give a bugger" (couldn't care less) when we all stand there and watch him.
Click on the link to watch the newest method of tenderizing meat!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH5SuRj-6Mc
I guess now that you've read today's blog you realize that we don't have a "jackass" living in our neighborhood... we have ten! Another thing we don't have is an alarm clock... and I don't think we will ever need one!
Great Story Rhett! I've seen that bird tenderise scrambled eggs! Funny guy.
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