Mirror Mirror on the wall who’s the cleanest of them all?

Hi, and welcome!

These funny little guys are called “Noisy Miners” and are native to Australia.

Neville warching enhanced

They are not to be confused with the brown Common or Indian Myna birds which were brought to Australia 1862 and released into Melbourne to control insect pests in market gardens.

Acridotheres_tristis,_common_mynah,I_TS402

Even though they were not successful at this, they were taken from Melbourne to many other places in Australia, including north Queensland. In 1883 it was thought, (thought being the operative word), that they would control insect pests of sugar cane particularly plague locusts and cane beetles. How did that go for them? Not real well. Common Myna’s are now found all down the east and southern coasts of Australia where they have become a pest as the drive out the native birds and eat up their natural food. But enough of the Indian or Common Myna. The Noisy Miners are the subject of this blog.

Neville noisy miner2

The Noisy Miners are endearing little guys and even though they are not particularly attractive they make up for it in entertainment value and personality.

On the Quiet Side of the Great Lake there a lots of Noisy Miners. Especially this particular little guy, I call him Neville and he appeared in a feature role in my last book. Neville is a particularly clean bird and has taken exclusive ownership of our bird bath. He loves to bathe, and he does so frequently. We’ve seen him dive in 14 times in succession! That’s his record to date.

And yes, he actually dives from the side of the bird bath!

PREPARING

PREPARING FOR THE DIVE2

DIVING

DIVING enhanced

FREESTYLE

SWIMMING cropped

BREAST STROKE

swimming swimming

PERFECT RECOVERY

PERFECT LANDING_004

THEN A NICE PLACE TO DRY OUT ON THE CLOTHESLINE

PREPARING FOR THE NEXT DIVE

Quite often he will make a sweeping dive from the clothesline right into the bird bath. Very athletic!

AND OF COURSE THE BIRD BATH IS A GREAT PLACE TO TEACH THE KIDS TO SWIM!

TEACHING THE KIDS3_001

I’d love to hear about the crazy antics of the birds where you live. Leave me a message!

Have a great weekend,

Marilyn

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