Sparrow In the Treetop

My signature cabbage tree has grown a lot in the ten-and-a-half years since I took a pot shot of it to represent me on my first blip. Not only has it added more branches, but it has also sprouted big bunches from its trunk. It is popular with the birds. This spring there is at least one sparrow nest full of chicks, and a starling family as well. The chirping sounds from the tree is an incessant racket during the day, and if I walk past it gets louder and more urgent. I can hear the squeaks of the sparrow chicks under the fuller chirps of the starlings.

These sounds are in every corner of my garden at present, though the chirps are often different. Many birds are nesting or raising fledgelings- sparrows, starlings, waxeyes, greenfinches, goldfinches, dunnocks, blackbirds, thrushes and Australian magpies. I hate the magpies. They take their chick around the nests of the other birds to feed it.

Today was hotter than yesterday. There were just a few lovely lenticular clouds that didn’t get in the way of the sun. The outdoor temperature in the shade was 33.5ºC and in the greenhouse it was 45ºC!