Most people have Guard Dogs but I always like to be different. Today I have adopted a new Guard Bird. I call him Spur. We didn’t get off on the right foot to start with. I had come home from Poker late last night (it would have been past 11pm) and as I got out of the car in the near pitch black I heard this bird screeching at me from the middle of my front lawn. I went to go check it out but it wasn’t having any of it and it just kept screeching at me. I was like "This is my fucking house!" - Yes, I do talk to animals and I am also very territorial. I wondered if this bird was nesting or maybe it was injured but when I put my glasses on to see better it was just standing there bald-faced and we had a short Mexican Standoff moment. I shrugged "Screw it, you’re not worth it and it’s late" and just went inside.
This morning I got up and the bird was still there in the middle of my front lawn making a fair racket as the neighbors headed off on their morning drudgery, but wifey (with her better eyesight and instincts) spotted two little chicks on the vacant block next door and it suddenly all made sense. I jumped onto the google for a bit of a nerd search and identified the bird – A Spur Winged Plover which nests on the ground, typically has two chicks and will swoop anyone who comes near. "Yeh, fair enough" I thought. I can respect that and maybe we can co-exist...’cos that’s how I like to roll....
After my own little chicks went off to school (and work) I was sitting there having a cuppa and decided that I would adopt my new mate Spur as my very own Guard Bird. I had a similar experience in one of my previous rentals down here when I befriended a King Parrot who also had two young (and very noisy and very messy) female offspring just like me. I figure if Spur is going to shoo off anyone who gets close to the property then good on them! The postman might not be to pleased about it, but I’m pretty sure Spurs screech is worse than his peck so he’s more of an alarm system than anything else. Hey, I’m on a budget so whatever works yeh?
