Saturday 13 June 2009

Man proposes, nature disposes

A curious little cameo from our neighbourhood. There has been a huge engineering project underway at the entrance to our small town. To our disgust, it has involved felling huge trees, flattening a massive section, causing mud slips over the main motorway; and that’s not to mention ruining a very good view. This is all in the name of commerce. It is about to be turned into a huge DIY centre (like we needed another one – we have gazzillions already).
So, every time we drive onto the slip road and past this monstrosity of a building site, I moan, I groan, I boo, I hiss.
Last week, however, I had cause to cheer. Picture if you can a twenty foot high outcrop of clay type rock. It is at the side of the slip road, so you get quite a good view of it as you slow down to enter the suburb. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were hundreds of sparrows clinging to it, I presumed to eat small insects. A few days later, this tall cliff started to turn green – the birds must have been after the grass seed which had been sprayed onto it. Good for them! At least they got a “takeaway”.
Yesterday the birds were still there, snacking away. My husband commented that at least they were away from any local cats. But then we mused on the Kiwi’s love of extreme sports. Perhaps the cats would find harnesses and bungee jump from the top, scooping up sparrows as they went.
The building site has been dubbed sparrow cliff and we don’t talk about it in front of cats.

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