From mid-winter to early spring (June - September) young male kookaburras may seek to establish a territory of their own. This usually involves taking over the territory (and family) of another male, and initially involves perching for long periods within the foreign territory to "case the joint" before becoming more assertive - hence the term "persistent invader". The newcomer may be accepted, or more likely - will be attacked and driven off.

Today (10 July, 2006), just after the four "resident" birds had visited as usual, the bird shown here arrived on a rail of our deck and sat more or less in the same spot keenly watching everything that went on (as you can see) - for the next 9 (nine) hours, until dusk!

During the day, some of the resident birds came close and loudly made "laughing" calls, but did not come down to the deck to be fed as they would normally do.

We may be witnessing a repeat of "first approach" all those years ago - see the first image of this gallery. What will happen next?

Nature must take its course ... but I shall be desperately sad if my friend of so many years, the resident male - Dad, "Captain Kook", "Charlie Brown" - is ousted and driven away. To have a wild creature such as this come to visit each day - admittedly for food - but also at times to come and perch nearby when I'm in the garden, or to glide down to meet us at the kitchen door whenever we have been out on a excursion, remains a thrill I shall never get over or take for granted.