Avian Aggro

Well it's that time of year again. Yep, nesting season for the various agressive birds here in Brisbane. And that means it's time to break out the cable ties and giant eye stickers for your bike helmet so you don't get muscled out of the territory of some testosterone-fueled male or overprotective female. Both Laura and I have learned this the hard way, as each of us has been swooped recently by a butcher bird up the street. This of course brings to four the total number of bird species that have gotten up close and personal with me since moving here, a list that includes butchers, noisy miners, a masked plover and that fiesty crow that Laura wrote about a while back that was terrorizing me every morning. And we haven't even dealt yet with the most notorious of all the swoopers - magpies - who are known to draw blood and blacken eyes when they make contact with intruders. It's only a matter of time. The only bird encounters I can remember from all my time in Canada was the occasional swoop by a swallow in our backyard, and of course my infamous encounter with a partridge in the backwoods of central New Brunswick back in '99.

All of these bird terrors here make for an interesting ride to work on my bike every day. The aforementioned butcher bird has set up a territory on our street at the top of the hill, so every day I have to come racing past to avoid getting chased. If he spots me he'll close in, only stopping when I'm looking directly at him. This means that I have to turn around and shake my fist or point at him while speeding down the hill to our house, not exactly stellar road safety. And the birds aren't my only concern, as I nearly got run over by a woman driving a big SUV on a rainy day last week. She entered a roundabout without seeing me and got right up on my back wheel, bending my kickstand in the process but fortunately not making actual contact with any vulnerabe body parts.

Despite all this, I must say that riding to work year round is one of the best things about living in Brisbane. It gets a little hot in the summer but it's definitely the most efficient way for me to get exercise. And I'm glad that my only animal encounters have happened in suburbia and not during my field work in North Queensland where the animals can do more than just give you a scare.

For those of you wondering how Edie is doing, well she's doing all right. She gets a little uncomfortable towards the end of each day but otherwise she's firing on all cylinders. She's been getting plenty of time with Baby Joel (aka Joel Davis, son of Tim and Lindsay) and hopefully getting used to having another bub to share the attention. As of March, she won't be the only game in town.