The Mystical Dendenong Ranges and other stories

The Dandenong ranges are located just about an hours drive Eastwards from the City of Melbourne.

The area is a horticulturists paradise! Which does explain why there were so many plant nurseries, bonsai nurseries, gardens of all sorts and fertiliser vendors all over the place.

Mist.....thicker than the Beijing fog! This along with the winding mountain roads made driving a bit scary at times

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils

There were Lots of unknown flowers like this one, even in the winter.

A green flower, looks like a variety of Euphorbia.

More Unidentifiable flowers and plants

Huge Gum trees!! makes you feel kind of ............... small.

?? Not sure what this was all about

A Crimson Rosella

A Laughing Kookaburra. There were plenty of these around but none came so close as to get a good shot. Why is it called a Laughing Kookaburra you may ask, well in that case you haven't heard the Kookaburra's call. Unfortunately I couldn't catch one on video for your listening pleasure so you'll have to have a listen here.

I wish more birds would sing like that!!

There are some very interesting aboriginal stories built around the Kookaburra. On Saturday night I read that aborogines in the area had this story that the Kookaburra's loud call is a request to the sky people to light up the mighty fire that lightens up the world. And sure enough the next day I heard the Kookaburras going on about something before day-break, and what do you know before long the sun was up!

A puffed up Australian Magpie

Ruby! One of our very friendly hosts for the night

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... a local lunch!

The William Ricketts Sanctuary

One of the renowned gardens & parks in this area. William Ricketts was a sculpture/ artist who was inspired by the spirituality among the aboriginal people.

It is said that the aboriginals have (more so had) a very close connection with mother nature, instead of fighting nature and overcoming it, the aboriginal people knew that the best way is to live with the nature in harmony.

This lead William Ricketts to do his bit to let the word spread. Therefore his sculptures depicted aboriginal figures blending in with the soil and the trees and the rest of mother earth.

A man with two lyer birds on his shoulders

Mother Earth

Thun Sithaka Raavaya

And to top off the great weekend, we got to listen to some intoxicatingly beautiful voices.

Dooooowili.................

This was not really in the Dandenong ranges, but it's not often that the diaspora get to listen to this kind of thing so didn't want to miss this!

The unforgettable Apple mala

Thun Sithaka Raavaya taking leave from the stage.

They didn't forget to sing all my favourites.........which was quite a lot!!

A Bird's Tale

Reading Gallicissa's blog reminded me of an incident that took place about 3 years ago.

Setting: Sri Lanka, parent's home

It wasn't just once when birds searching for a place to make a nest to raise a family decided the best location for the new house was on a Ficus tree in our courtyard, inside the house. The parents-to-be would come into the house, inspect the location, the tree, all the branches and all the while talking with each other (trying to make a decision I guess) and then leave, after about 2 or 3 inspections, they would decide whether they are going to build the nest or not.

The first time someone decided that a high-up branch on the tree is the best spot were a couple of Kondayas (apologies for not knowing the real or scientific name of these birds, maybe Gallicissa can help!).

They built the nest and laid the eggs. There were 3 small eggs with brown spots. We could conveniently see into the nest from the second storey. We watched as the parents took turns in hatching the eggs, and going out in search of food. We watched as the eggs hatched and two teeny weeny pinky babies came out. The third one was a bit late, but eventually did manage to squeeze out. We watched as they grew feeding on whatever their parents brought home.

And then one fine day the little ones decided that it was time to stretch their wings. This was quite an exciting and anxious time, not only for the parents but even more for us, because just a few feet away from the foot of the tree was the fish pond. And then there was good old Bingo. Dogs are not generally interested in a bird for a meal, not even for an afternoon snack for that matter, but anyone fluttering around in 'his' house becomes his problem, so was a bit scary. And then there was the stealthy kitty cat, always choosing the most inappropriate times to show up.

So the little birdies took to the sky...... or more towards the ground. They would fly as far as their little wings would carry them........like a few centimeters at a time. Then they would sit on a low hanging branch of a plant, sometimes on a fern just over the edge of the pond (gulp!) and rest for about an hour before finally gathering up the strength to do it all again! The bird parents were behaving like any normal Sri Lankan parent would when their little ones first start moving around.......screaming, or rather chirping at high frequency and running behind the little ones excited and nervous at the same time. And whenever it seems that the babies were having trouble getting back to the nest, the mother or the father would demonstrate how it should be done, over and over again until the little birdie made the attempt.

This drama went on for a few days, quite nerve wracking for us knowing the potential dangers lurking in the vicinity. Fortunately everything went according to plan. Once the babies had had enough training the parents led them out to see the wide world. They flew up to the window, sat there for what seemed like ages, and finally made the move. The younger sibling, who seemed a bit smaller and backward than the others took a few more hours in mustering up the strength, but he (or she) too finally joined the others. The parents were heard making quite a racket outside for a while.

A couple of days later I spotted three Kondayas on the bird's eye chili tree (their favourite fruit, I think) and I knew it was them because one seemed a bit smaller than the other two. And they seemed to be happy, and it was really nice to see them doing well in bird society!

However not all bird's tales have a fairytale ending.

A few months later (or was it a year.....not sure) a couple of kondayas came in to inspect the ficus tree (Deja vu). I'm not sure if it were the same couple, for birds don't have facial features where we humans can distinguish between Tom, Dick and Harry (or maybe more likely chirp, choop and cheep). Anyhow, they built the nest again, and this time there were 2 little eggs. The eggs hatched and two little kondayas came out.

But this time the story took an unexpected turn, the bird mother was most tragically murdered.... the suspect was caught red handed (or feather mouthed) licking its paws and lying on its side quite content with the deed. The cat didn't get any lunch from me that day, he didn't seem to need any either....well, that's what he was born to do I guess.

The bird father had his hands full bringing up two children on his own. The elder one seemed a bit rebellious, for he left the house and straight into the wide world while the father was away gathering food. The father returned to find only the younger child on a plant in the courtyard, so he rushed outside chirping away to look for his other child.
The next day the younger one was seen sitting on the window grill looking into the unknown world out there. He looked quite vulnerable without the mother to guide him out.

Later on the day I was just outside that window, filling in the bird bath under the frangipani tree, when the little guy suddenly decided to make a dash for the nearest frangipani branch. Awwww...

As I watched the little bird sitting on the branch, I could see past him another pair of eyes watching intently. Kurulugoya! (again sorry I only know the names of these birds in layman's terms). It was such a helpless moment....I knew what's going to happen, and I knew I can't do anything about it, but I wanted to do something to save this innocent fellow, but there was nothing I could do....I can't shoo away the little guy for he could hardly fly, I can't stop the predator bird I didn't have enough time to cover ground...And all of these within a fraction of a second. So I watched helplessly as the big bird whizzed in.... like a missile, eyes focused on its target.

Swooooosh!!

Gone!