WHOSE RESTAURANT RULES?
According to the rules of supply and demand they arrive without fail: They demand and I supply. I am talking about the 30 or so finches that front up for a feed every morning. It is a happy start to any day, watching them up close as they fly about with great agility.
The bird life around here is a delight, about 40 species all up, over 12 months. The most noticeable are finches, with two species dominating: Owl-faced (aka double-barred or banded) are the very prominent, at about 5:1 over the red-browed, firetail finches.
Their favourite foods are seeded grasses and seeded plants. Little birds, about 50gms and 10-11cm, they can often be seen nibbling at seed heads, while balancing on a grass stem, at some precarious angle. Owl-faced finches communicate using the short, “tiat” “tiat,” the longer and very genteel, “tiaaa” “tiaaa,” and other calls.
Owl-faced are communal creatures, sharing lodgings in beautifully formed sphere-like, roosting nests made of grass. Nests are not difficult to find, mostly at low-level in wattles and leafy bushes; sometimes two nests together. The birds can often be observed rushing about, from bush to bush in a great flurry of chirpy agitation, as though in some game. Late in the afternoon they gather and perch in the lantana and low shrubs, preening themselves and each other in the setting-sun.
When the sun rises so do my happy little, feathered friends. I only have to appear at or near the balcony and excited cries go out calling the colony together for their free tucker. My customers perch on their little mountain restaurant, and stare me out until I deliver (Feeder photo and bird pictures below). While crunching away at breakfast they cautiously keep watch, their communal eye intently focussed on me as if I am about to destroy them. At the slightest movement, even if I go to get more seed, they fly off instantly, en masse. I wish they trusted me more; after all, I do give them their daily bread and only have their wellbeing in mind.
Among them is one particular control-freak. Even though the firetail finches are numerically inferior, one fiery fellow is the self-appointed, fire-breathing, dictator, of a restaurant he neither built nor keeps supplied. Frankly, he is a greedy bully who shuffles about chasing away all others just so he can have it all to himself. So busy protecting his own interest he has no time to relax. Nor does he enjoy the company of his kind; he just pecks and pokes them out of his life as he focuses entirely on his own interests according to his selfish rules for survival. Unfortunately, this little brute mimics humanity, too well, which is sad indeed; and it need not be that way.
And, they keep me thinking, about all sorts of things...
SURELY YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!
“One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him." Luke 8:22-25.
When I reflect on those little finches, the ones who push, shove and seek everything for themselves at the expense of everyone else, it makes me think about whether I do the same, in some way. The other day I got stressed-out when things weren’t going the way I had planned: it was so frustrating as I tried to talk to someone at a call-centre’s so-called “help desk”, someone new, on her second day on the job; who really didn’t have a clue; who wasn’t born in Australia and couldn’t understand English; and, who took forever when time was short. I felt like I was drowning -- swamped by the impossible difficulty of something that should have been so simple.
And, when I think about those disciples, my fellow nongs, who figured they were going to cark it because they thought Jesus didn’t care, and that he certainly didn’t know what he was talking about when he said, “Let’s get going guys -- I’ll get us from here to there, no matter what turns up!” I ask myself, do I really trust Him for everything: to get me through this desperate world; to feed me and clothe me and house me, each day, without me ripping someone’s head off to get what I feel I need? Do I even trust him for the circumstances surrounding my exit from this earth to go to him, according to his choosing? "Where is my faith?" That’s a question I need answer each day. Meanwhile, it’s nice to know that he is serious and he knows exactly what he’s doing -- always.
The bird life around here is a delight, about 40 species all up, over 12 months. The most noticeable are finches, with two species dominating: Owl-faced (aka double-barred or banded) are the very prominent, at about 5:1 over the red-browed, firetail finches.
Their favourite foods are seeded grasses and seeded plants. Little birds, about 50gms and 10-11cm, they can often be seen nibbling at seed heads, while balancing on a grass stem, at some precarious angle. Owl-faced finches communicate using the short, “tiat” “tiat,” the longer and very genteel, “tiaaa” “tiaaa,” and other calls.
Owl-faced are communal creatures, sharing lodgings in beautifully formed sphere-like, roosting nests made of grass. Nests are not difficult to find, mostly at low-level in wattles and leafy bushes; sometimes two nests together. The birds can often be observed rushing about, from bush to bush in a great flurry of chirpy agitation, as though in some game. Late in the afternoon they gather and perch in the lantana and low shrubs, preening themselves and each other in the setting-sun.
When the sun rises so do my happy little, feathered friends. I only have to appear at or near the balcony and excited cries go out calling the colony together for their free tucker. My customers perch on their little mountain restaurant, and stare me out until I deliver (Feeder photo and bird pictures below). While crunching away at breakfast they cautiously keep watch, their communal eye intently focussed on me as if I am about to destroy them. At the slightest movement, even if I go to get more seed, they fly off instantly, en masse. I wish they trusted me more; after all, I do give them their daily bread and only have their wellbeing in mind.
Among them is one particular control-freak. Even though the firetail finches are numerically inferior, one fiery fellow is the self-appointed, fire-breathing, dictator, of a restaurant he neither built nor keeps supplied. Frankly, he is a greedy bully who shuffles about chasing away all others just so he can have it all to himself. So busy protecting his own interest he has no time to relax. Nor does he enjoy the company of his kind; he just pecks and pokes them out of his life as he focuses entirely on his own interests according to his selfish rules for survival. Unfortunately, this little brute mimics humanity, too well, which is sad indeed; and it need not be that way.
And, they keep me thinking, about all sorts of things...
SURELY YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!
“One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him." Luke 8:22-25.
When I reflect on those little finches, the ones who push, shove and seek everything for themselves at the expense of everyone else, it makes me think about whether I do the same, in some way. The other day I got stressed-out when things weren’t going the way I had planned: it was so frustrating as I tried to talk to someone at a call-centre’s so-called “help desk”, someone new, on her second day on the job; who really didn’t have a clue; who wasn’t born in Australia and couldn’t understand English; and, who took forever when time was short. I felt like I was drowning -- swamped by the impossible difficulty of something that should have been so simple.
And, when I think about those disciples, my fellow nongs, who figured they were going to cark it because they thought Jesus didn’t care, and that he certainly didn’t know what he was talking about when he said, “Let’s get going guys -- I’ll get us from here to there, no matter what turns up!” I ask myself, do I really trust Him for everything: to get me through this desperate world; to feed me and clothe me and house me, each day, without me ripping someone’s head off to get what I feel I need? Do I even trust him for the circumstances surrounding my exit from this earth to go to him, according to his choosing? "Where is my faith?" That’s a question I need answer each day. Meanwhile, it’s nice to know that he is serious and he knows exactly what he’s doing -- always.
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