It's currently 43.4 degrees and that is only good if A) You are very very very very cold and want to be warmed up in 1.5 seconds. B) You are the Sun C) Your are 'Flame Man' or 'Flame Woman' from the planet 'Flame' and have stopped here for a holiday. D) you need to cook a flat egg but don't have any cooking equipment apart from a sheet of metal (yes - that can be done here). E) You like sunny days and escape the heat by using air con and swimming in a 30 degree pool (heated by the sun of course).
We tend to choose E. ( we can cook eggs on our cooker - so D isn't really necessary).
Our plants struggle at times like these and during the day look like this:
At night (with no moon) when the temps drop to their rock bottom of 27 degrees they look like this :
Which rather neatly brings us onto Owls.
It finally happened. One of Mr Blues family decided to hang around in the 'GIANT KITTEN CAGE OF CERTAIN DEATH'. Pixel or Pix or Mr Pix proved the point and brought in a baby Mr Blue.
Dead.
Yes ... after all we have tried to do to stop him from harming the native fauna it seems the native fauna is determined to off themselves. I'm quite sure the victim in this case snuck into the GKCOCD, saw Mr Pix asleep, decided life was too hard, and forced his way into the mouth of our defenceless sleeping kitty cat.
Of course that's not true. He hunted it down like a professional killer that he is.
So what's the answer? Well can't get smaller caging, and no point in sticking shade cloth all over the enclosure since it would defeat the purpose. (Doing that would also defeat the porpoise as well, so just as well we don't have one. Plus it would be cruel to put it in a cat enclosure).
A bell on a collar? ( for Mr Pix - not the bird as that would just weigh it down). Unfortunately the Splendid Wren family are know for 'weak flying capabilities'. So they look pretty but are a bit slow on the flying part.
A natural predator to scare them away? Yes!
One suggestion is a fake cat. Hmmm - you can see the problem with that one. If a real cat isn't scary enough then a fake one would have to be ... well, weird I suppose.
A bird of prey is another suggestion. Yes! Let's try that. Anything is worth trying. First choice is a 'realistic looking owl'. Luckily we have owls that live at our place but I wonder if the wrens have ever seen them since they only come out at night. Still, my ornithology facts are sometimes a little lacking, so let me introduce you to Hooters - the realistic owl.
Yes. Looks like someone has painted skulls on his chest. His head realistically spins all the way around in the breeze. Just like a real owl.
I think it looks scary and Mr Pix thinks it's pretty scary too. He's filled with sand. (Hooters - not Mr Pix). Interestingly the Wren family have not been around this side of the house since. Could it be working or is it due to closing the window that lets some of the cool aircon out of the house that might have been attracting them?
I think it's Hooters because he cost $12 (about five British notes or something like one US $ at the mo ... well that's what it seems like).
We have a back up. Oh yes.
Let me introduce you to Falcon McFalconface.
We will put him into action if Hooters needs some back up. He's not filled with sand because A) he has no 'sand hole' B) he wouldn't be able to fly as gracefully as he is here.
So with luck we can still try to protect those 'stupid suicidal but amazingly pretty when not dead' wrens.
Pixel in the meantime just continues to do cat things like sleeping heavily:
Investigating old diving helmets ( he can climb in from underneath):
To trying to work out why his favourite attention seeking scratching area is covered with bubble wrap and fake fur rugs.
So, tomorrow we will cook our turkey in the BBQ. We could just leave it in the sun I suppose but where is the tradition in that?
We also have a floaty thing to try out in the pool. The box does look suspiciously small though.
Until next time - or the time before that - bye bye and Happy Holidays etc etc.
