Butchered

With the magpie season in Australia just about over (although I've had to deal with them as late as March in the past), one would think we could expect an end to visits from our feathered friends. One might be wrong. Unfortunately, I still have to deal with pesky butcher birds. These are only ever really an annoyance in the immediate aftermath of magpie season.

Basically they're small birds that mimic the behaviour of other birds, which sometimes include the dive-bombing behaviour of the legendary Australian magpie. The one difference is that the magpie tends to be more "professional" about it, basically attacking within a certain range, and almost always going for the back of the head (even if my ears and neck have been a target in the past). The butcher bird, on the other hand, generally has no idea what it's doing, apart from the fact that it wants to dive-bomb something.

This morning I took one to the side of my face while I was riding along. I suppose I should just be glad that all I really got was the wing rather than the beak (which might have done some damage). I think that the bird might have learned a lesson this time -- I noticed that it didn't come back for a second go. I guess it was one of those "this will hurt you a lot more than me" type of attacks.

In other news, I was astonished to hear that today it actually snowed in Queensland! Apparently some snow fell in the vicinity of Stanthorpe -- around 250km west of here. What's really astonishing is that it fell in what is effectively summer in this part of the world -- considering that winter snow falls usually only happen once every five years there. I'd like to try riding in snow one day. The closest I've managed to come was on the Great Alpine Road in Victoria two years ago, when it was lining the side of the road. I was probably close to getting some in New Zealand earlier this year, too.

Unfortunately, the prospect of getting any snow here on the Coast any time soon is somewhere between highly unlikely and impossible.