A bandicoot for your thoughts

See me if you can.

What wet food the ragdolls will not touch, I leave for the Bush Stone-curlews. My ragdolls are incredibly choosy and expensive house cats and that means a lot of food gets a prissy reaction. Happily, curlews are less choosy and polish off most rejected food in a flash.

Bush Stone-curlew (male) checking for evening manna.

 

But not always. Sometimes they do not rush in but pause and pose. They just stand there, motionless, with their heads tilted, as if looking askance at substandard fare.

Last night, I thought I would watch to see if they actually did go and leave the food after they baulked like that. I went upstairs and sneaked to a window above them and looked down by partly lifting the blind.

My viewing conditions were challenging.

I waited. The curlews posed. Then something startling happened. Out of my garden something plopped, dropping from two feet (60cm) to the driveway. It then flopped and hopped amongst the curlews sending them off in all directions at once.

The curlews subsequently reacted indignantly and reapproached the menace with riotous screaming, which is their way.

At first I thought, "Rats!" but the hopping meant marsupial not placental. Relief.

The bandicoot and the curlew.

Needless to say, the Northern Brown Bandicoot (that is what it is) was not the least concerned by the curlews and, loping now and again, made short shrift of the food.

It was difficult photographing this smallish marsupial. I had to use the telephoto and flash from 6 metres (20 feet) away and contort by cryptically leaning out from a screen door. It was all helped by the glow of the garage light - but not much.

When the platter was clean, the bandicoot went off into the night.

This is a good garden.