it's very hot for dogs, humans and birds

It's hot. Hot all day and hot all night. Penny is feeling the heat.

We took the comfy pet futon off her bed and replaced it with a wet towel, but she's not convinced that's a good idea and has rejected it. I'll put the futon back on, tonight, because I see on the Snooza website they say it's cool in summer. Certainly Penny did sleep on it last night, and the temperature only dipped to about 28 degrees Celcius (83 Fahrenheit).

While she was flaked out in the best spot to receive the breeze from our evaporative cooling, I was out in the garden checking for fresh water in our array of bird bathing bowls.

As I was filling this final birdbath I heard a chattering...

...and saw two thirsty little birds sitting right beside me, not a metre away, with their beaks open, and realised they were my very favourite birds, pardalotes.

I knew pardolates pardalotes live around here, because I've heard their song from high up in the trees, but to see some down near the ground, right up close, was fantastic. I couldn't get a photo, because I didn't have a camera, and by the time I crept away and rushed into the house to get one, they were - of course - gone.

Here are some photos of these lovely birds.

something big in Penny's garden

Penny won't usually go out to the back garden after dark unless we go with her - or unless she hears something strange that requires investigation, such as noisy possums, careless rats, or cats traveling up the back lane.

On the last few nights, as I've waited out in the chilly winter's cold for her to do her business, I've seen a large flying creature take off from our beautiful fifty-year-old willow myrtle. I think it might be a powerful owl, which would be wonderful, not only because it's a privilege to have such a magnificent bird in our garden, but also because, with a bit of luck, it will solve our rat problem.

I'm optimistic that it's an owl because there have been definite sightings of this bird in the nearby Darebin Parklands, and our garden has a population of possums (and rats, of course), together with closely planted trees. Whatever the creature is, it is large, and makes a wonderful whooshing sound as it flies from the tree. It's always in the same spot each night.

On the other hand, it might be a flying fox, because they abound around here. But I think these gorgeous flying mammals are gregarious, so I wouldn't expect to see a single one each night. And the other thing is, flying foxes are noisy, chattering and chirping, and this creature is silent until we walk right up to the tree where it is sitting. It gave me quite a fright the first time it dived upwards from the tree just above my head.

Interestingly, Penny takes no notice of it, although a possum sitting in the same spot would evoke a storm of barking.

swimming in brown water and with the fairy penguin at Brighton

Because the heat has arrived, we're looking for places to swim. I took Penny to the Yarra yesterday and she had a great time, even though the water, as it often does, looked brown. The Yarra River is often called 'The Upside-down River', because the mud is on the top. In fact, it's because the high level of turbidity means it carries a load of silt. A man walking past us yesterday said the silt is clay, and I have noticed that after a swim in the Yarra Penny sheds a layer of fine clay dust around the house when she dries.


Today she swam in the sea near Brighton, at Green Point, in crystal clear water, calm as a pond.




And... something swam past, mostly under water, just emerging occasionally to breathe. Here's the only shot I managed to get, as it was moving so fast and coming up so rarely. I feel sure it was a fairy penguin, but passers-by I spoke to said it was unlikely.



I'm convinced it was a fairy penguin.

birds in Darebin Parklands

Yesterday's visit to the Parklands began and ended with birds.

First, as we walked along the creek, in the off-lead area, Penny had to stay on lead because there was a duck with ducklings. (Click on the photo to enlarge it and see the gorgeous little creatures.)



Penny didn't even realise they were there but the mother duck was concerned, so she gathered up her large brood and headed for the opposite bank.



And soon the babies were completely hidden.




After our exercise we made our way up the path and came across a baby crow (actually a species of raven, I think, but I call them crows) sitting quietly in the main entrance. Dogs are supposed to be on lead at that point, but I wasn't confident that everyone would obey the rule, so I called in at the house next door and asked the owner if I could put the baby over the fence into his yard.



He said it had in fact been in his front and back yards during the day, so we presumed it could fly at least a little.

The baby was quite unconcerned about being carried around by a human (wrapped in my jacket).

In the end I decided to put it back in the park, because I'm fairly sure there's a crows' nest in one of the tall trees there. It shook out its wings as I placed it in the tree and observed me calmly as I hurried back to collect Penny from the fence where she was waiting on lead.



I hope I did the right thing. I've checked with a bird-loving friend and she says it's a myth that human handling of a baby bird makes the parents reject it. And I remember one year when a whole nest full of baby crows took turns to tumble onto the ground from their nest in my school, and were subsequently cared for on the ground by the adult birds, over a period of weeks, whilst hundreds of young children played around them.

So I think the parents will come back and care for this fledgling.

Another reason I decided to move it was that two Indian Mynahs were walking around it and I thought maybe they were going to attack it.