A minute ago I was sitting in the lounge room reading a novel about a charismatic Melbourne rabbi (as you do) when I began to hear a faint, weird, high-pitched noise, almost exactly halfway between a stutter and a croon.
Kids out in the street?
Feline intestinal disturbance?
Radio next door?
Nope, it was definitely coming from the chimney. Last time I heard a noise in the chimney it was a disoriented mouse, and the time before that it was swarming bees.
Went outside to have a look. Rushed back inside to get the camera.
Are they wood ducks, perhaps? Every year, a few of them land at Chez Ocky to check out a hollow tree nearby (good nesting spot). Unfortunately for them, the hollow is already taken by an aged and grumpy possum.
ReplyDeleteI have watched two ducks peer cautiously into the hole, then back out very quickly, chased by the flailing arm of Mrs Possum.
Sometimes there is a third duck, and I assume he is the Real Estate Agent duck, showing the young couple around. "Here's a lovely old hollow, plenty of room for the kids. There's a tenant there at the moment, but she'll be moving out soon."
Oh, I love that idea, Ocky.
ReplyDeleteLOLDuck indeed...
[doorbitch is, agonisingly, OTGKMFVT. I'd like to think it's a very rude acronym.]
Looks like Wood Duck (aka Maned Goose) profiles to me too. I can't think of anything else that quacks that's likely to inhabit one's chimney.
ReplyDeleteThere's a certain Melia tree outside the Benham Bldg at Adelaide Uni that hosts a clutch of Wood Ducklings most years. Had the pleasure of watching one season's offspring jump & flutter from their nest several years ago....
The Feral Abacus
Australian Wood Ducks usually like hollow tree branches - but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Well spotted
ReplyDeleteI'd be feeling a bit spooked if ceiling duck was peering down my chimney...
ReplyDeletethe feral abacus
Heh!
ReplyDeleteThey've gone. It was just a stopover.
I think.