News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 31

Well our baby plovers are growing fast. Instead of little fluff balls they now have their feathers and look like miniature versions of the adults.

Trying to get all four in one picture is now almost impossible as they all scoot off in different directions, but still under the watchful eyes of mum and dad.

Then two days ago a pair of the ducks that frequent the yard were picking at the grass as they do, when we noticed something else moving………it was three little ducklings.

Still little fluff balls so they were relatively newly hatched.

They spent a few hours in the back yard and then the parents went off down the back to the creek.

I also feed two adult magpies and a juvenile baby from last years hatch but the mum and dad grab some food and take off into the big gum tree in a neighbours yard so we got the binoculars out and sure enough there is a nest with babies.

Not sure how many but Im sure in time the parents will bring them down to meet us and let them know that this lady gives free food.

We suspect that the pair of curlews that hang around also have babies somewhere. As they are ground dwellers we will have to wait till they come out of the long grass before we see them.

So lots and lots of babies here at the moment…… its definitely spring time.

It is officially now spring Downunder and gardens are coming to life. Ive always wanted some iriss after having worked in a nursery many moons ago but never bothered to get any bulbs.

When we moved last year there was a couple of plants in the little bit of garden that I wasnt too sure what they were so I just let them be.

Imagine my surprise and delight when one got some buds and it confirmed what they were. Once they opened up, sure enough some gorgeous purple iriss and I had my iriss finally. Different variety to what I had worked with back at the nursery but still, I had iriss.

There was also another couple of leaves growing and I thought they might have been gerbras, another plant that I picked thousands of while working in the nursery.

I was in charge of the gerby house and again had picked thousands. So in the last couple of days it too had buds and two pretty yellow gerby flowers have opened.

The garden had been badly neglected by the previous owners so they are a little stunted but I will hopefully remedy that by next year.

So along with a hot pink azalea and a white azalea, the iriss and gerbras have put a bit of colour to my garden this spring.

Both my son and his family and my daughter and her partner have gone down to the snowfields at Mt Hotham in Victoria this week.

My daughter is sending me photos documenting the journey and sent photos from the airport as they were boarding.

Daughter and her partner boarded at the front of the plane and son and his family boarded at the rear entrance.

While the daughter sent photos as they were going to the plane from the front angle, pretty normal holiday snaps, imagine my surprise when the son sends a photo when he boarded of a huge piece of tape on a cowling saying…..

The plane is duct taped!

Im sure it is all safe to fly but it looked funny. My response to him was, well they do call it 100 mile an hour tape. His response was but the plane flies at 600 mph so I said to him maybe there is 6 pieces of tape, so all good.

Obviously all was Ok because they arrived in Melbourne and are now 5 hrs away up in the ski fields.

I really hope they all have a wonderful time because for my son, this trip is to replace the trip they had 3 years ago.

It was a couple of months after my son had his accident (fell off a ladder) and fractured his skull and had a bleed on the brain.

Drs allowed him to go but he wasnt allowed to do any skiing or snow boarding in case he fell.

They went but instead of 7 days of fun in the snow, they only spent two days and then went and stayed in Melbourne for the remainder of the holiday.

Will be my daughters first time in the snow but her partner grew up in Vancouver and knows what snow is all about.

Our resident plovers have produced another batch of babies this year. They have hatched 4 babies a few days ago. This is the same pair that reside here and only had 2 babies last year.

We had been watching the mumma as she had made her nest and sat on them right beside the driveway of the neighbours across the road.

Plovers make their nests in open grassy areas such as in the middle of parks or yards. While mum sits on the nest, Dad is close by watching for any predators or other birds that may take the eggs.

He will attack anything he feels is a threat, even other plovers that might invade their space. There is another pair of plovers further down the road and one of them, presumably the male, does a flyover to see whats going on, so dad is on the ball and will chase it well away from mum and the nest.

We saw mum sitting and eagerly awaited to see how many babies she might hatch. We knew there was 3 and suspected a 4th when we saw the three running round near mum but she was still sitting.

Baby plovers even as little fluff balls will feed themselves right from hatching.

They will still go and snuggle under mums wings for a week or so but they are then on their own but still under the watchful eye of mum and dad.

We hope these bubs will grow into adults as sadly the two we were watching grow for 6 weeks last year were hit by a car which was really sad.

They dont have a lot of road sense though and will run back and forward across the road picking for food in our yards.

It was my daughters birthday this week, so last Saturday her partner put on a family party at the Shorncliffe Pier.

It was also the first time I met her partners parents after 7 years.

As we were in Hervey Bay and partners parents were in Mt Isa, it had been a bit hard to all get together.

We also met daughters partners sister and her little girl. Originally it was planned that we go to the Breakfast Creek Hotel, but with covid still doing the rounds it was decided that outdoors would be a better option.

Our menu was a few pizzas and to finish off was a delicious cheese cake made by her partners mother.

It was a gorgeous day made even better because there was absolutely no breeze which being by the water there normally is a sea breeze.

Was a wonderful afternoon/evening and I had to snap a photo of the pier with the afternoon sun on it.