As I stepped out my door to take my walk on our bush property I disturbed a lace monitor who scurried back into his hidey hole under a rock in a garden. As I took off down our dirt track driveway I saw a rainbow bee-eater fly out of its hole near our shed, its blue, yellow and green feathers shimmered in the sunlight.
After a few minutes of walking I heard a couple of channel bill cuckoos heralding the start of summer as they flew overhead. I then stopped to listen. I could hear many birds, some I could recognize, others I couldn’t. The fig birds hanging around in the palm trees always remind me of the tropics. The joker of the bush, the kookaburra, had a laugh and then flew to a gnarled old gum nearby. I then walked on.
High up on the escarpment there was a stronger wind blowing than the gentle breeze where I was walking. There are many species of eucalypts and other natives growing up the escarpment that creates great habitats for the whip birds and the bush turkeys I could hear. I tried hard to ignore the insidious lantana.
As I walked past the huge sandstone rocks that have stood the weathering of time, I thought of all the fun my kids had playing on these when they were young. The rope hanging from a high tallowood tree over the Waterfall Rock must be 10 years old now. The Truck Rock (named because it looks like a semi-trailer) has a strangler fig growing over part of it. It will look spectacular in 20 years time.
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