The way of birds
The first Jasmine is out, the birds are up at 5am and making a racket because there is no time to waste. A currawong painstakingly works its way through the trees and vines in the garden, looking through its gold-rimmed, gimlet eyes for the perfect piece of material to use in its nest building. He/she pulls a narrow, dead thread from the cats claw creeper on the wall, flies to the ground and examines it repeatedly, picking it up, putting it down, picking it up, putting it down, before finally saying, no. A most exacting process, does the bird know precisely what it is looking for? The right piece for the right place? Or is it simply leisurely checking things out before beginning building in earnest in a few weeks when spring is overwhelming?
