Spring must be here

I have a sneaking suspicion that spring has arrived in South Australia.

My reasons?

• It has stopped raining every day.
• The nights are warm enough not to have a heater going.
• The days have more periods of sunshine than cloud.
• I’ve had serious bouts of hay fever.
• The birds are busy nesting.

And today I recorded two species of birds in our garden that usually arrive from up north about this time of the year.

The first was one of my favourites: the Rainbow Bee-eater.

Rainbow Bee-eater

The second species was the Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo. I only heard this one briefly late in the afternoon. This is the first cuckoo I’ve heard this spring. I will be listening carefully for the other species of cuckoo that occur here at this time of the year. And with so many other species breeding they shouldn’t have trouble finding a host for their eggs.