As you know, the wildlife and I are on a more or less equal footing here. There are a few differences between us — they don't do the washing up and I don't eat the spiders in the window frames...oh, and our concepts of bathrooms are not identical. But that's about it.
But the balance seems to be tipping. And not in my favour. The animals have been taking liberties.
I went shopping this afternoon. (Because it's nice to have something other than jasmine rice in the pantry.) I dragged all my food-filled green linen bags out of the car and headed to the house. In the small distance between the carport and the front door, one of my green bags became snagged on something. That something turned out to be Harry the brush turkey. He was keen to see what the bag contained and had caught a corner of it in his large, hooked beak. After a short tug of war and a slightly longer staring match, I suggested he should get back to raking the leaves off the roof before I buried him in his own incubation mound. I won. This time.
And as I write this another brush turkey is tackling a concrete snail. (One of only two garden ornaments that I own. The other being, of course, a concrete snail of different design.) The turkey has knocked it over and is now trying to drag it down the driveway. I'm not sure what it is about this concrete snail that makes the wildlife covet it. The last animal to show interest in it was a long-nosed bandicoot. After a tentative nibble, the bandicoot decided that it was not worth the effort. The turkeys are obviously slower learners.
