Bloody Storm Bird

The Common Koel Bird – bludger and user! Its storm season in Brisbane and every afternoon the noisy Keol can be heard coo-eeing around the suburbs. Locals call the Koel, or Eudynamys scolopacea, the Storm Bird as his call generally precedes a storm. Actually, it also follows a storm and if the storm wasn’t so noisy you could hear him calling during the storm. But let’s not spoil a good suburban myth. I was all set to blame him for all the storms that have been stopping me finishing my current project. However, after checking out his form I find he’s not really telling us a storm is on the way – it’s all coincidence. He arrives from PNG each summer storm season and his call is a mating call. But you knew that didn’t you? That’s all well and good; you can’t knock a bloke for trying to get himself some nookie. It’s the bit after I don’t like. After mating these birds look for some other dumb bird pair and land them with the egg. The hosts baby-sit the egg and then rear the Koel chick until the chick itself notices that it’s a different breed. You’d think by this time the male host would be asking his hen some pretty searching questions. But no, the Koel chick uses up all their time and energy and then just flies the coop. He heads north to PNG and joins with all the other bludging user Koels. No questions asked. What a con. How stupid do the host Mum and Dad look now. I’m trying to build a deck on one corner of the pool and it has to be done by Saturday when the family gather for a 21st party. It actually should be finished before I fly to Vietnam on Thursday. The job was planned to start a week or two ago and did but the day I started digging out the turf, 6 December, the heavens opened up. 160 millimeters or 6.3 inches later and the rain slows. My friend and helper, a builder, doesn’t work on wet days as in I’ll be there Monday IF IT DOESN”T RAIN Like – Sorry Sarge, I don’t want to patrol today – it’s raining. Bloody civilians. The rain stops and the sun comes out creating a sauna effect. My son comes over and we busy ourselves securing the beams and then start bringing in the cubic metre of crusher dust that goes underneath the decking, wheelbarrow load at a time. Under the patio, the temperature reads 30 degrees C. I take the thermometer and lay it down on the pool coping where we are working and then later, when we have smoko (cold apple juice) I check the temperature – 55 Degrees C or 122 Degrees Fahrenheit. Instant de-motivation. Minutes after I see that temperature, I hear the Koel herald a storm. Suddenly I don’t care if it is a suburban myth, I don’t care if he is a bludging user and I don’t care about him getting his way with some Koel chickie bird. I just want the storm. Can’t work in the rain. It pours and we are forced to stop work. The temperature drops, the pool overflows for the fourth time this week and the job site reverts to a swamp. I’ll have another go tomorrow.