The Brush Turkeys Descend

(As opposed to the Bush turkey. To visit Sydney, do you really need all this? "Two 747s, one of which is the celebrated Air Force One; it is bolstered by several transport planes, one of which will carry two helicopters, not to mention more than a dozen vehicles, including two bulletproof Cadillacs for the purposes of motoring with confidence through Sydney streets while an angry mob of high-school truants chucks eggs and chants 'Hey, hey! Ho, ho! George Bush has got to go!'" It adds up to "total greenhouse emissions of 57,886 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, or to put it another way, the amount produced by 2000 average Australians over the course of a whole year," according to Annabel Crabb in the Sydney Morning Herald. But that's not what this post is about.)

A while ago, I mentioned that Brush Turkeys (Alectura lathami) breed in our area. Well, it looks like they're getting ready to do just that. We've had a few sightings in the last few days, including this, just outside the sunroom window:







It's a little hard from these photos to get a sense of just how big this bird is. But it's around the size of a medium-sized dog. It's around 70 cm long. So we're not talking a mere chook here.

Having just planted my spring/summer crops (tomatoes, potatoes and strawberries), I am hoping my fences are sufficient to keep this gorgeous creature in the right part of the garden....