Is there any image more Australian than the sight of a kookaburra in the old gum tree?
Most days the maniacal laughter of resident kookaburras echoes across the landscape making me wonder how the early settlers thought when they first heard the unusual, and loud, call of the kookaburra. Surely their first thoughts would have been that they were indeed going crazy or that some unknown person were in the bush intent on scaring the living daylights out of them.
Living in the country affords us the opportunity to observe the antics of many varieties of bird life. Admittedly the kookaburra is mainly an early morning bird [who needs an alarm clock?] or a dusk bird, but occasionally its laughter flits across the air waves reminding us of its presence, and announcing to all that 'this is my territory'.
Late yesterday afternoon a kookaburra laughed just outside the house; I looked. Not just one, but two of these birds of the kingfisher family, hurried to grab the camera and was lucky enough to capture two on film.
