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St Mary MacKiller

Jan 28 • 9 tweets • 3 min read

I’m a bit embarrassed to upload this bcs of my prednisone potato head &sweaty gardening hair, but meh, 🤷‍♀️what can you do?
(Careful of volume - I’m whispering; Egg gets loud)
#kookalife #EggBurra

When he slows down in his call, he wants me to join in. The phone dampens it &it’s way louder in person than it seems here. And this isn’t his loudest…
This is a family/happy call.

We spotted an enormous rainbow. Egg decided he needed to do a personal sign-off, a daily ritual. This call is “I AM EGG AND I AM HERE!”
That first few squawks are basically “TRY ME!”. He’ll make *just those if he is suddenly vulnerable, or if he’s staking claim.

This was the rainbow. It appeared like magic. Egg didn’t give a flying rat’s.

For those who may be concerned, I’m an ex-zookeeper; zoonoses management is life; H5N1 is not an issue in Tasmania; I keep up to date on H5N1 issues; I’m at greater risk of catching a fatal new covid variant off a non-masker than catching H5N1 off an Australian bird.

My maintenance &cleaning routines are geared to eliminating zoonoses risk. I &my sons have never, in my entire animal-keeping life, had a zoonotic disease except toxoplasmosis (from cats), which most cat owners get &leaves antibodies &immunity. I know about I’ve had toxo bcs>>

>>I’m so conscientious, when pregnant I stopped working with all animals &was tested to ensure baby was safe (antibodies protect baby but *catching toxo during pregnancy may cause foetal blindness).
‘Kissing’ Egg is my one small concession bcs it is a unique human/animal>>

>> engagement that *some animals (inc Egg) connect with - &kookas need social intimacy. We are *his life. He also does (by choice) nose/beak boops, &if I get spit on my face I use sanitiser.
You may note, obnoxious critics NEVER rant at the 1000s of insta or toktok creators who>>

>> lip kiss their parrots or have them on food prep areas w/human food - often in countries *with H5N1 outbreaks. Birds isolated from physical contact with infected populations are *usually safe. Such selective uninformed criticism is abusive &the poster always wants attention.

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More from @StMaryMacKiller

St Mary MacKiller

@StMaryMacKiller

Jan 29

The Icarus family interrupted Egg’s rain spa earlier. The baby is very precocious &comes right to him, &Egg isn’t happy about it.
This is a perfect example of kooka vocalisations when non-family kookas are intruding. Egg still uses baby-calls to get my help.
#kookalife #EggBurra

You can break down his monologue into separate vocalisations that are: declaring the presence of non-fam kookas; calling for assistance; complaining about these arseholes; telling the arseholes to get off his lawn.

Inside, it’s still important that Egg can continue his territorial ‘dance’, which he’s adapted to his limitations. After a while in his roost, he asks to ‘fly’ to his other fave perch…
#SlowEggTV

Read 6 tweets

St Mary MacKiller

@StMaryMacKiller

Jan 27

I like to think of our Hills hoist as living sculpture. Egg brings performance art to it.
Big day today with the WBsea eagle paying us a close up visit.
#kookalife #EggBurra

She was hunting the riverside all day; when we went to see LB, she showed up there. LB didn’t show (I’m glad!) so we went to pick up a parcel from the PO - the owner’s little girl is obsessed with Egg. He finds this tiny human’s fascination with him bewildering 😆

We met up with the landowner at LB’s who reconfirmed permission to be there - much appreciated, as he doesn’t have to do that.
A running man stopped &stated with astonishment, “I’ve heard about a kookaburra person! Is that you?!?” with Egg on my arm &2 ravens circling overhead.

Read 5 tweets

St Mary MacKiller

@StMaryMacKiller

Jan 25

In the’90s I received social support as a single mum for the first time ever. I was studying &doing contract work.
I informed C’link that I wasn’t eligible for Austudy but they paid it anyway. I put it in a separate account til the day they asked for it back using threatening ->

-> letters that implied I’d knowingly defrauded them. The language of the letters was traumatising, but I had informed them TWICE &they had told me I was wrong, so I knew the fault was theirs. The sum they tried to extract was more than they had overpaid ->

-> I knew bcs I had the money, untouched, waiting to be returned. They didn’t like that but accepted it.
Then they began a new course of harassment, more letters demanding payment of the money already returned. I had a lawyer send a cease&desist letter.

Read 31 tweets

St Mary MacKiller

@StMaryMacKiller

Jan 25

It’s past time Australians acknowledged & confronted the
myth of Medicare.
•It’s no longer setting global precedents - it’s behind
•It’s very expensive to be chronically ill/disabled
•Most low income ppl can’t afford to see specialists
•Its lack of coverage is discriminatory

@AlboMP

@AlboMP #Medicare #UpdateMedicare

Bandaid changes are not addressing the overarching issues. They are the equivalent of running over a cat for 9 years, then peeling it off the road & trying to inflate the same cat with a bicycle pump.
We need a new cat.
And not a privatised cat.

Read 4 tweets

St Mary MacKiller

@StMaryMacKiller

Jan 23

I made this to show some of the more obvious elements of our communication. I wdn’t normally hassle him to come up, but I knew it would clearly show how he says ‘no’. He knows I know he’s not done yet; he has to do his last call.
#kookalife #EggBurra

There’s a lot of nuance in head movements, eye contact, &body language. It’s taken a while for me to learn, but I’m getting there. You might notice he doesn’t *like saying ‘no’ but doesn’t understand why I’m being pushy (not what I usually do).

His reaction to Astro is closer to being irritated by a sibling kooka &is not at all behaviour related to being scared of a dog (Egg goes psycho to get away from any other dogs). Egg does the head bob which in this instance shows he’s ready to engage with me after his call.

Read 5 tweets

St Mary MacKiller

@StMaryMacKiller

Jan 23

Very strange raven activity today.
My home crew having LOOOONG conversations, over distance, this morning - one right at my door.
8 collected at a tiny roadkill by the road at the orchards; dozens &dozens there on my return; >100 spread across the orchard and haybales.

The roadkill was not their focus. I saw this same behaviour once before - that time I moved the roadkill off the road but was enveloped in a curtain of passive but engaged ravens (Opal’s family), flapping &brushing me.
Some of these today will be Onyx’ &Opal’s connections.

But why do they do this? Home now, &the house crew are still relaying talk. All the way home from the orchard, ravens were grouped in treetops or flying with intent.
They barely acknowledge cars, until the last minute - thankfully there’s a good long line of sight ->

Read 9 tweets

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