For the last week or so we’ve been finding our some of our oranges, grapefruit and mandarins on the ground and shredded …
or hollowed out very neatly (this morning’s one is a bit messy)!
. Trying to think what could be eating them we firstly eliminated quendas (bandicoots) as they can’t jump or climb. Next options were either rats or possums as both species love fruit of any kind and we certainly know about rats eating our grapes as we’ve seen the cheeky blighters actually doing that in broad daylight.
This morning the puzzle was solved as I opened our bedroom curtains and looked out at the Washington Navel orange tree. There in full view were two gloriously coloured red capped parrots having a feed. As I needed to take the photo through the window, the clarity is not as clear as I’d like (windows need cleaning 😏) but I caught this parrot in the act ….
We usually only find one piece of fruit on the ground, so I was surprised to see two parrots in the tree. On inspection I found two damaged oranges so perhaps the first parrot is bringing his mate along and sharing the bounty. You can tell they’re male parrots as they have lovely bright colouring. The female colouring is duller and they don’t have the bright red cap.
So, problem solved as to cause. The issue is that we don’t really want to put the bird nets on, so we’ll probably look at taking our share of fruit off the Washington Navel and leaving a few for the parrots. They can have the grapefruit as we can’t use them as Gordon’s on medication that reacts to grapefruit. The Valencia orange is absolutely loaded, so we won’t miss some off there and the mandarins are at their best right now and ready to be shared around, so we’ll share with the parrots and hope we get more than they do.
It’s another glorious sunny winter’s day and we’re heading out to lunch with friends in the Swan Valley at a French patisserie. Once again, crocheting is taking a back seat but who could resist the call of French food and sunshine 😋🔆
Wishing you sunshine, lollipops and rainbows
(aka Pinky) 🔆🍭🌈
