The Cheeky Kookaburra

Remember the kookaburra? The subject of that silly little song that you learn to sing in childhood?

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be.

(If you'd like a little refresher, you can find the tune by clicking on this link- http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/kookaburra.htm)

The picture here is a rather fuzzy picture of a kookaburra on our clothesline. Because our neighborhood borders on bush reserve, we see and hear lots of birds, and the kookaburras' laugh is so distinctive among them. It crescendos into a crazy cackle, and the first couple of days after we arrived, we would stop and listen and marvel and point it out to the girls. When Oma was here, she had her field glasses out every day, looking for the kookaburra that perched about 5pm on an aerial that we can see from our back veranda, and she was most upset when he didn't show up the day before they left....

Around the dinner table last week, the girls were particularly enjoying a new verse to the "Kookaburra Song" that Erin learned in music class, and that we had never heard before.

Kookaburra sits on the electric wire
Jumping up and down with his pants on fire
Ouch, Kookaburra! Ouch, Kookaburra!
Hot your pants must be.

Ah, the hooting and hollering at the dinner table!

So, this past Wednesday, we were at Erin's soccer practice in the afternoon, and the mums have made a practice of bringing along "afternoon tea" for our kids. We all sit around a picnic table and share our food with one another. Lachlan was sitting in his stroller, out from underneath the cover of the picnic table roof, snacking on a muffin. And all of the sudden, this kookaburra swoops down out of the gum tree over the table and snatches the muffin right out of his hand! The poor kid never saw it coming, and I don't think he ever figured out what happened to his muffin. He just kept sitting there, looking at his hand quizically, not making a peep. And after about 30 seconds, he gave up trying to figure out where it was and moved on to something else.

Cheeky bird!

Anne