Whilst I’m a fairly novice bird watcher, Suki the cat had always a great interest in birds for her own reasons. With the exception of cooked specimens, I tended to ignore feathered animals before I moved to Australia in late 2005 to join Mrs. Schmitz in Sydney. This changed soon after we settled in the suburb of North Bondi where the sheer abundance of colourful and exotic species sparked my interest in avian topics. I started to write down bird inspired observations which I put on this little weekly blog about Australia, Sydney and the feathered and not feathered locals.
The Australian members of this widespread species of seabirds share a passion and great appetite for the local fish with their human compatriots. My own gusto for dishes that feature something piscine used to be limited to the occasional trout in summer before I left landlocked Austria for oceanic Australia, where I quickly learned to appreciate the culinary benefits of the abundant supply of fresh fish.
I don’t know why this particular species of Spoonbill got lifted to a royal status but what I do know is that Australians don’t pay much attention to royals. It’s more their own compatriots who pay mining royalties that make the local headlines. Even though Australia is a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II at its apex as the Queen of Australia, this fact is widely ignored in these parts, as are the English royals in general.
The Zebra Finch is on of Australia’s iconic birds inhabiting most of the continents arid central areas and ranges and although never far away from watering holes they are highly adapted to the hot environment of their habitat. But I guess even this desert dwellers would have had a hard time, confronted with yesterdays temperatures of up to 43°C in the eastern part of the country, including the eastern suburbs of Sydney where I reside.
