u/MinervaAbsolute

The emus were in this morning, now the brolgas.

I went for a walk up to the dam, and interrupted a pool party. Most years I have a single swan visit, sometime in early autumn, for a week or two. I’ve never seen multiple swans before. The ducks are always here - there’s quite a large population. When the ducks come out to graze, they really do line up, I assume the origin of the phrase “all your ducks in a row”. The ducks are usually very wary of people, and all (but the moorhen who is unbothered by anything), fly off as soon as I approach. They seem to feel safer with the swans around. If you turn the sound on you can hear the frogs.

My excitement was a bit dampened because one of the positive cases of H5N1 was not so very far from here. I hope this time next year the water birds will still be around to visit.

I live on a seasonal wetland. We’ve had a lot of rain and the swamp filled up overnight. This morning the brolgas are back (they are very noisy, so hard to miss their arrival).

But how did they know? Yesterday the wetland was barely there; today it’s getting full. And the brolgas arrive, right on time.

Going from the last couple of years, I think this is a parent pair with their most recent young. They’ll be here on and off until the wetland dries up.