There was a great annual gathering of all the birds, animals and insects at Upper Lurg to celebrate Christmas, after the humans had migrated to Melbourne.
The 25th December had arrived and the sun was just spreading its warm rays of light across the mountain tops into the rich valley of 5 acres covered in trees, flowers and a muddy water hole.
The Kookaburras were awake and excitedly laughed and called out “Come on the Suns up” lets party, in moments there was a great gathering of Cockatoos, Corellas, Blue Wrens, Firetails, Yellow Breasted Honey eaters, Swallows. A Black wallaby, a Golden Hare, Rabbits, an Echidna, Bluey the Blue Tongued Lizard and a Black Angus calf with his Wooly Lamb mate, to mention just a few who live in this little forest they call home.
Just inside the main gate in the middle of the gravel track stands a Giant Ant’s nest the home of the vigilant Red Soldiers that guard the bushland from unwanted invaders.

There is a large metal shed set amongst the trees and this year two men erected a veranda along one side this gives us shelter from the wind, rain and sun, the Swallows, smiling said this will give us a perfect structure to build our nests after collecting mud from the dam, for our next season’s chicks. The shed door had been left open, giving access to water from the dripping tap over the sink, and all the kitchen benches, furniture, tables and wood stove, and well stocked pantry what a wonderful Christmas this will be.
All the mums and dads brought along their babies from last Spring to celebrate and meet all the residents of the their common home along with food for the festive lunch, there were worms, grubs, grass seeds, insects, nuts from the gum trees plenty of porridge, weeties, cake, sugar, and a bottle of Port left in the open pantry that helped lift the spirit of all concerned.
But what about some music? several Field Crickets jumped on the back of the couch along with a few vocal Cockatoos, for the drum effect the Echidna rolled around in the empty four gallon drum, all the smaller birds, Blue Wren, Firetails, Willy Wag Tails danced to and fro through the limbs of the Red Flowering Gum which had been allowed to grow through the veranda roof.`
The Yabbies’ from the dam got a ride up on the back of the Blue Cranes from the dam and we filled the sink with water so they could stay and join in, one drank some Port and started doing cart wheels around the sink and pinching the females on their bottoms, we had to put him in the kettle for an hour or two till we could get him craned back to the dam.
There was great stories told about how and where to build various nests to raise the young, stories of the joy when the young hatched and when they could take to the wing and fly freely across the sky and land safely on the limbs.
The shed was decorated with local flowers some golden some red, pink gum leaves and dried Flowering Gum Nuts, the day was long and hot ,most of the young were tired and curled up together on the bed and were sound asleep even though the Cockatoos were screeching and complaining about the lack of cold Champagne.
It was a great Christmas enjoyed by all but now the shadows were lengthening time to go home and put the babies into their comfortable feather beds. We cleaned up the shed did the dishes swept the floor dumped all the rubbish. Then we sat for a while on the deck chairs reflecting on what Mark has done for us, this was a vacant bare 5 acres, he planted all these native trees and shrubs made sure they grew into the habitat were we could live and call home, he protects this oasis and asks only that we visit him, sing some songs, show him our dances and keep the balance and harmony of the bush.