What Da Tuck?!: Another First

No one can say I hadn't been warned. We knew the stories from the first few weeks after arriving. Some played the stories up, others poo-pooed them as over exaggerated and silly. Today I experienced it for myself and it was frightening.

I had decided to bike to Burnett Heads as the night before there had been a bush fire at the Mon Repos Turtle Sanctuary and Barolin Nature Preserve. I had seen the fire engines at 3pm the afternoon before and wondered where they were headed. The sky told the tale as a layer of black smoke filtered through the late afternoon sunshine. The 6pm news was full of the videos of the fire which as very close to where we play tennis in Bargara, Nielsen Park. This was my usual walking area, but I was interested in the extent of the burn which was further on the path. I hadn't even thought about magpie attacks, which was dumb as my tennis friend Lynda had warned me about that area. Out of nowhere a huge male came swooping down on my head/helmut and wouldn't stop. I was screaming and shouting, "I'm leaving" but I guess that's exactly the wrong thing to do. I turned the bike around and rode as fast as I could out of his area. As I rode back another biker was headed into the danger area, I warned her, she said she knew.

Read all about it here:

http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/magpie-season-way/1500138/

Scene of the crime! "O", Powers St. Burnett Heads

This is a "postie" and they can't avoid the attacks.

This is how you can try to protect yourself against the highly protective birds whilst riding,

I know it looks like you're trying to contact Mars, but it works better than

This!

And here's a You Tube of an actual attack. Amber vs The magpie, it wouldn't let me upload it, so there's your homework!

The day wasn't a total loss, the whales are migrating back south and we occasionally we get to see a pod off our veranda. It's truly an amazing site to see, and much less dangerous.