The lockdown blues: Satin Bowerbird

We actually sat and watched the press conference on Saturday where New South Wales’ Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that we were going into lockdown. Not going to lie, I actually screamed, “NOOOOOOOOO” at the top of my lungs (apologies to the neighbours) because it will extend over my birthday. I’m sure that once Gladys hears that I’m an only child she’ll make an exception for me AND send a gift 😉 but I guess until that point we’ll be spending a lot more time at home.

It’s not all bad though. I started a deep clean of the kitchen today and grabbed the sewing patterns I have bought, gathered up the beautiful fabrics I’ve quietly been purchasing and went to grab my sewing machine from out of the bottom of the linen closest. Thought I’d take a quick look at the beginner’s ‘boxy top’ pattern I’d bought first though, you know just to get the lay of the land, and remembered that I can’t sew! Oops! Bit of an oversight on my behalf there. 😳😂 Let’s just say my YouTube history today is beginner’s sewing tutorial based and I have set myself a goal of having made a basic top, that hopefully not only fits but looks totally adorable by lockdown’s end. Pray for Matt. He’ll have to listen to my frustration taking the form of a very potty mouthed sailor over the next couple of weeks!

And with lockdowns comes much more sitting on the deck, trying to soak in the winter sun as it makes its way across the sky before sinking back behind the escarpment. We had a very lovely male Satin Bowerbird, its plumage looking very black as it flew in from my neighbour’s yard, right across the top of our heads, as in, we could actually feel him whoosh past, way too low, as he followed what was obviously his well worn path back out through a gap in the tress near our fence line.

I’ve been hearing their whirring and clicking mechanical calls in the yard and across the road and we even had a very young one in our tree last year, its feathers still pin-like on its head giving it an almost punk look. The perfect blend of cute/ugly! Their breeding season runs from August to January and I love watching the boys building and decorating the walls of their bowers and their jolting, bowing dance, pale flower petal or blue trinket held in their bill.

I got to the Wollongong Botanic Gardens on Friday and headed straight to a well known bower there. I was really hoping to see the male prettying up the bower, which now is well and truly filled to the brim with blue things, but he caught a glimpse of me and was no mood to perform on cue. Instead he perched right next to a bit of unfurling shade cloth, you know, just to ruin the ‘natural look’ I was hoping to capture in my image. Sheesh, birds 😉

Hopefully with the extra time outside at home I’ll catch some more glimpses of the older boys (they start turning blue at age 5 and are fully blue by 7), and some green birds, younger boys and the girls, as they sneak berries from our trees.

What are your plans for lockdown? Learning all the things? Or eating all the things?

Satin Bowerbird, male – Northern Illawarra