Ron's blog

Both Larry and Harrie grey butcherbirds and Freddy and Terry pied butcherbirds have brought their new chicks to see us this week. Larry came first with the noisiest bub this season, easily out-squarking all the magpie bubs, which takes some doing, because the grey butcherbirds are so very much smaller than the magpies.

Happy New Year to all! I've been a bit slack posting during December, partly because of all the diversions and partly due to having to chase after problems with our hosting service, which took a lot of time.

My telescope is in our breakfast room pointed at Vicky's nest, and when I looked this morning, no baby to be seen! This called for a trip across the fields to visit the nest.

Vicky's bubs are very late this year, due to the whole family stopping their normal activities when Sophie was sick. And a week ago one of the two bubs in the nest disappeared. It was there one morning and gone that afternoon. I searched the land under the nest thoroughly, but found no dead bird, so we fear that maybe a hawk or a goanna took it.

Just a quick note to tell you about a remarkable thing that happened this morning.