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The Corroboree

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Guest corroboree_frog
On 25/10/2018 at 1:20 PM, Glaukus said:

Recently I have been experiencing visitations by birds on a daily basis. Most notably magpies, but also king parrots and crows. One magpie in particular is now so comfortable that he will eat from my hand. I call him Claude. 

King parrots are also making daily visits. Crows watch from a distance but are very vocal.

This is a new occurrence that started a month or so ago, and it seems to hold some importance, but I'm not sure what to make of it.

Magpies seem to be associated with a message to focus on spiritual pursuits rather than material ones (I'm hardly a materialistic person so I think there's something I'm missing). Parrots are associated with the need to be watchful and alert. 

These are the typical associations in dreams anyway. But my visitations are physical, so I wonder if there is more to the picture.

Does anyone have any experience with bird visitation and their symbology?

 

I think magpies are part of the corvid family which include the very mystical and intelligent ravens. I think Odins messengers and guardians were 2 ravens called Huginn and Muninn. Thought and Memory.

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Update: 

It's all about the crows now. They seem to follow me and call to me wherever I go.

I like crows.

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I've had increasingly more young magpies come to visit they just sit around the yard or hunt the giant crickets and other bugs through my cacti and gardens , real friendly and completely un afraid . 

Also a beautiful little kookaburra likes to sit either under the swingset or on the swings themselves sat outside and watched him while he watched me a couple weeks ago, can see the real intelligence in its eyes .

Edited by Ex-Cess'es

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How is your attunement to the spirits of the skies going?

I've been exploring this, more as feather finding.

 It's a really nice (and 100% free) flow state searching for feathers and you really attune and connect to the environment around you - I feel you can interpret your 'feather findings' psycho-spiritually, in a more spirited way than reading tea leaves...

 

I find I often find feathers that are in some way deeply relatable to life. I like to make little objects out of them.

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For example, yesterday's feathers to me are a reflection of my current struggle between lower and higher energies, learning to re-integrate shadow aspects, embrace dark and light and coming to a greater peaceful unity between the opposing duality to a greater whole

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Today, this one found me:

 

To me, this is the feather of 'spirit triumphing over darkness'. Even when life is beating you down, there's a glimmer in the spirit to overcome the darkness.


spirit.thumb.jpg.b5abbf9d40675c062b996e957e6b9302.jpg

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2097931972_IMG_20190915_0704201.thumb.jpg.fdaf52effee4a7d6b13134a5c19ff7b9.jpg

spirit.thumb.jpg.b5abbf9d40675c062b996e957e6b9302.jpg

508953487_IMG_20190915_0716251.thumb.jpg.61178dd3b749e8c30e235cdd2f280ad3.jpg

2097931972_IMG_20190915_0704201.thumb.jpg.fdaf52effee4a7d6b13134a5c19ff7b9.jpg

spirit.thumb.jpg.b5abbf9d40675c062b996e957e6b9302.jpg

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Sitting in the garden earlier today under my lemon tree, working out how I'm going to keep my bees this year, when a New Holland Honeyeater was rustling in the tree above with a bee in its beak! Gulp, gone!

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6 hours ago, Gimli said:

Sitting in the garden earlier today under my lemon tree, working out how I'm going to keep my bees this year, when a New Holland Honeyeater was rustling in the tree above with a bee in its beak! Gulp, gone!

Wow @Gimli didnt realise they ate insects.  Theyre such a lovely bird, Im a big fan.

From Wiki 'Nectar does not contain protein so New Holland honeyeaters must supplement their diet with invertebrates such as spiders and insects that are rich in protein'.

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At my last place we had a bad mice problem up in the chook shed.  One morning i saw an Owl perched above the gully.  We stared at one another for a few minutes neither of us moving.  In my mind i said 'plenty of tucker up there' to which the bird replied something like 'dont tell me how to do my job' and promptly flew off.  

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I was interstate the last few weeks and I felt nostalgic to see sparrows again. When I was a kid, sparrows used to be very common where I lived. It must have been around 1991 or slightly later that they were replaced by Indian mynahs. Now there is not a single sparrow. I wonder if it is too cold in Melbourne for mynahs?

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14 hours ago, Glaukus said:

I was interstate the last few weeks and I felt nostalgic to see sparrows again. When I was a kid, sparrows used to be very common where I lived. It must have been around 1991 or slightly later that they were replaced by Indian mynahs. Now there is not a single sparrow. I wonder if it is too cold in Melbourne for mynahs?

I grew up in Melbs where indian mynahs were the dominant bird in the suburbs.  Noisy mynahs too but not in the same numbers.  To me it seemed mynahs dwindle in numbers the further out you went into the bush away from higher human populations. Rather Satin bowerbirds would occupy that niche (in the Yarra Ranges at least). Both very intellegent, organised birds.

South of Hobart i dont see any Mynahs, sparrows and starlings abound.  Certainly less bird diversity in Tas than Vic imo. 

The Forest Raven do very well down here on roadkill.

Birds of prey like Wedgies, Grey goshawks, Sea eagles are often seen this time of year dining out on spring chicks.  War in the sky!

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https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/09/america-has-lost-quarter-its-birds-fifty-years/598318/

 

So sad. We should all enjoy the presence of our feathered friends while we can.

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Mynahs have on occasion made the north coast, but they are a target to keep out. Mynahs would smash the small bird populations around the urban centres. 

 

There was a salmonella strain that hit the sparrows statewide detected around 2009 and 2016 in the north but they bounced back a little. The south had a few reports, but I have no idea how they were affected. Nothing like the numbers they were though. 

 

Lol... I've got a skyrat (starling) trying to nest in my heater flue. I usually catch one or two a year In  the heater box. 

 

The welcome swallows have this week come back to the nests I allow them to have on the house. I use their arrival as a cue to start planting a few things. 

I love watching their aerobatics and listening to their little chirps as they dart about. 

 

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I've always been puzzled why the Noisy Miner is spelt this way but, having had to listen to one of their young for at least a week I suspect they should actually have been called Noisy Minors

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On 23/09/2019 at 6:32 AM, waterboy 2.0 said:

 

 

The welcome swallows have this week come back to the nests I allow them to have on the house. I use their arrival as a cue to start planting a few things. 

I love watching their aerobatics and listening to their little chirps as they dart about. 

 

The swallows at mine arrived a few weeks ago, seemingly earlier this year (and both at the same time).  I too use them as a cue to get things in.  They nest in the carport, which gets hot as in Jan when the chicks are still occupying.  Ive got a rug atop of the roof now to keep temps down for the wee tackers after one year seeing a chick evacuate due to heat stress.

Swallows impress me as a bird with skilled aerobatics but also the ability to do the long haul flight.  They have tiny feathers projecting out from around their mouths to aid in ( increasing suface area ) funneling food/insects in.  Much the same way as my beard.

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Are crows a bad omen?

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On 26/10/2019 at 10:47 PM, Cimi said:

Are crows a bad omen?

 

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To me birds seem the first to be different with lock down and few people around. Like they've reverted back to their own dreaming without humanity to observe and exploit.  A different vibe for sure.  

This morning i saw a Sea Eagle, tonight a Nightjar both just on the side of the road.  Very cool. 

Forest Ravens seem to be gathering in larger numbers too, less road kill to go around i guess.

Edited by Humboldt
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  • Glaukus
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I was interstate the last few weeks and I felt nostalgic to see sparrows again. When I was a kid, sparrows used to be very common where I lived. It must have been around 1991 or slightly later that they were replaced by Indian mynahs. Now there is not a single sparrow. I wonder if it is too cold in Melbourne for mynahs?

Hi Glaukas , I grew up in Melbourne , plenty of sparrows .....And was surprised to see good ole sparrows in Coolum , Sunshine coast . I didn't think they were able to live so far north ....

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Sorry Glaukas , I don't seem to know how to properly insert your paragraph ...

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In town the other day after a little dream in the rotunda I went for a walk.  Across a grassy area were plenty of plovers (masked lapwing) who are well known for defending their area with swooping, displaying wing spurs and an aggressive call.  I love the way they go about things. The dream id had left me feeling connected so i used that to feel into my plover mates.  What i got was speed and vigour are how they gauge threat levels.  So i slowed down to a doddle and sure as shit no alarm calls, Id could get 2-3 mts away before they'd respond to my presence by altering direction or stopping searching for food.  But no stress response. Will be interesting to  try slow walking in early spring when the young are about.  

Makes one think of maggies and bike riders.

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- O - bird whisperer.....

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Good to see a number of people with a similar relationship with the birds in their area.

I have the strongest relationship with kookaburras. I will trust a kookaburra to tell me which direction to head in when travelling before I trust the advice of a human.

 

The strangest and most profound experience I could share happened a few years ago, when I'd decided to try living in the 'burbs and being in a live-in relationship out. Didn't turn out too well. Without turning a story out of that, there was this mutual incompatibility in that I have always felt compelled to move to the country and she was completely terrified of the natural world beyond short walks in the forest.

 

It took months to sort out what I needed to do in my mind, and the day I received confirmation of what I needed to do (bug out as it was the end of our lease and go wwoofing whilst awaiting further instructions,) I was standing in the backyard with her while hanging up washing. Four kookaburras proceeded to swoop me, flying around me, landing on the ground and hopping closer then flying away, landing on a branch above my head and screeching with laughter. They were getting so close I wanted to shield myself with my arms, but I elected to take it as an opportunity to test my faith, as such. One thing that unnerves me about the old kookaburra is the size of their beaks. If they did so choose they could likely make off with any appendage attached to our bodies, and I found myself standing there, trying to keep my centre and breathe as these birds did their aerial stuntshow around me. Me alone. They completely ignored my ex.

The experience lasted, I would say, 5-7 minutes. Four kookaburras at full volume fucking losing it over how funny and pathetic my plight was. 'Wrong way buddy, you knew this was a bad move. You belong with us.' When they were done they disappeared just as quickly as they arrived.

 

Even now I have this constant daily silent dialog with the 'burras in my backyard. I try to observe how their scouted territory shifts about the landscape, and reliably await the once-yearly ritual of their taking up residence directly outside my living room and waiting for me to hang up my washing so they can shit on it. Once a year. I consider it a form of tax from the indigenous spirit of the area. I am allowed to integrate and feel that my presence on the land has been allowed, but as a reminder of my insolence the kookaburras continue to keep me in line.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, the COVID corvids! In the first week of the first round of stage 3 restrictions in Vic, I went to the local reservoir for a walk and witnessed this group of around 15-20 crows all doing this bizarre formation flying exercise that I haven't seen before. Taking turns doing these paired/grouped, synchronised flights out over the water and definitely having a meeting about something. As others have noted, I was painfully aware of the fact that they were checking me out and understanding a lot more about me than I ever could about them.

 

The birds are definitely stoked we're not around as much at the moment, and that initial period in which they realised they're in charge again was particularly awe-inspiring.

Edited by Tøn
forgotded the crows
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Woke up to a crew of about 50-70 white ibis in the backyard. Very amusing birds to watch, very very pretty. I've seen a few about before but never in such large quantities- I've lived here for about 3 years. I think we're going to see a noticeable increase in wildlife this spring; seeing how quickly nature's adapting now we're out of the way is pretty awesome.

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