Signs of spring

Earlier this week I saw my first clutch of ducklings down at our dam. For a while now the wood ducks have been here feeding on the lush pasture, splashing and swimming in the dam and disappearing into the bush to check out their nest hollows in the karri and marri trees. Occasionally one gives a rousing strident call from high in a tree and I often wonder if it is a call to the newly hatched babies to 'jump' and freefall to the ground. I continue to be amazed they survive it - but of course they do.

I've no idea where they take their clutch of tiny fluffy ducklings in the evenings. But one often sees the pair of adults leading them uphill away from the water to a safe hidey-hole where the foxes hopefully won't find them.Inexperienced parents often lose their entire clutch, but sometimes they learn quickly enough to save the   last two or three and raise them successfully. At the end of the season old hands will  be seen leading a dozen or so fully grown duck teenagers on the rounds of the dams and paddocks in our little valley.

As I type this, outside I can hear the beautiful trill of the inland thornbill, a tiny bird with a richness of sound that belies it's size. Yesterday one was calling from a potted magnolia in my herb garden beside our verandah. Beautiful.