Invader

What a day. Dinosaur attack and a bushfire.

The latter being far more serious, and a bit too close for comfort - a house has been lost, and mrs tsuken tells me it belonged to a friend of one of the trainers at the gym. The wind has been far too strong, and at first looked like it was blowing towards us - but happily (for us...) the fire is moving mostly away from or at least not towards us. Still not exactly relaxing though; got everything ready to chuck in the car and go.

The former was on the way to the railway station this morning. Strolling along, minding my own business, when WHAM! it was like someone had thumped me in the back of the head with something fairly hard - and also sharp. Rather hurt my neck, actually - possibly more so than my scalp. Looked around, and flying off was a theropod dinosaur of the avian variety: Cracticus tibicen, otherwise known as the Australian Magpie. Blimmin' sod. Made me think - given that the magpie is neither all that that big, nor a bird of prey - what damage a large raptor could do. (And OMG just check out some of the videos there of golden eagles: including killing wolves of all damn things! O_O Moral to the story: do not, and I mean this seriously, mess with a Golden Eagle.)

This little theropod was not such a problem. I kind of like the effect I got as it was behind a meshy fence thing. I shot this off before going down the stairs to look for a clean shot; just as well, as it flew off almost immediately. - And as I said, I like the effect anyway. It's a Common Mynah, which is indeed common - so much so that it is declared "one of the world's most invasive species and one of only three birds in the top 100 species that pose an impact to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests."

Large, and again square September.