Spring is indeed here but yesterday the winds arrived from the mountains reminding us that somewhere it was still very very cold. A new wave of summer birds have arrived — the silver eyes. Tiny birds who travel great distances following the sun. Apparently if you look close enough you can work out which ones have flown from Tasmania, across Bass Strait. For a tiny bird this is remarkable.

Last week as I left the house on the way to work I surprised a beautiful male superb blue wren. We both just stopped what we were doing and looked at each other. His beautiful blue feathers shining for all to see. His beauty attracts the harem of brown coloured young females who follow him around. It is easy to think of him as king of his world but recent research has found that there is in fact a matriarch lurking there somewhere who runs the place and he is more like her toy boy than a king. But I don't think anyone has told him that. On this beautiful spring morning he looked like a king.

So we stood eye to eye, the king and I, a glimpse of the wild in the suburbs.