Photos

While we weren’t entirely wandering,  this photo is taken on the shade-sail at Mum and Dad’s house, it was quite a way from home.

Apparently this kookaburra has taken to visiting on the off-chance that a goldfish in the pond below may be on the menu.  A small compensation is that it is happy to hang around and have it’s photo taken.  For those of you interested in goldfish safety – there is a net covering most of the water, and the fish have worked out that the surface isn’t a safe place to be.

Kookaburras are the largest members of the kingfisher family, they eat other birds, insects, small mammals, small snakes and lizards.  The snake eating part definitely makes them useful to have around.  Apparently their name is onomatopoeic, that is it imitates the sound that it is describing (like meow), so the name represents the sound of their call.  Once a kookaburra has caught large prey they either hold it in their beak and bash it senseless on an appropriate hard object, or drop it from a height.

The Australian Museum Online [^] and Wikipedia [^] have some more information about Kookaburras if you are looking for some.