Elvira and the Pilliga Mouse Read online

  ‘Mum! Mum!’ he called. ‘Come quick! It’s the eagle … my eagle!’

  His mother rushed out in alarm. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Look,’ said her son, pointing at the big bird. ‘That’s the eagle that rescued me. Can you believe it?’ He took something from his pocket. ‘I’ve still got the stone. Watch,’ he said, and threw it towards the waiting bird.

  Elvira picked up the pebble with her beak, flew over to the boy and dropped it gently into his hand. Tom was overjoyed. Putting his arms around the bird’s neck, he sobbed, ‘Thank you. Oh, thank you. I can’t believe it. You’ve come back to me.’

  Tears came to Elvira’s eyes too, and although she found it uncomfortable being hugged and cried over, she put up with it for the boy’s sake. Finally she broke away and he calmed down.

  Tom’s mother whipped her mobile phone out of her pocket and was busily snapping photos. ‘Nobody will ever believe this,’ she said to Tom. ‘I can hardly believe it myself.’

  Elvira looked up. Byron was calling. It was time to leave. As she rose and took flight, Byron joined her. Together they circled the farmhouse three times and dipped their wings in a final salute.

  As they headed east towards Sydney, Elvira looked back over her shoulder and saw Tom smiling and waving goodbye.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  From the tiled white roof of the Sydney Opera House, Elvira and Byron watched the morning sunrise. On their arrival the previous afternoon, Byron had talked Elvira into spending their first night on top of the world-famous building. He was amazed by all the comings and goings around the harbour.

  ‘Don’t city people ever sleep?’ he wanted to know. ‘People out in the bush go to bed early and get up early. Here, they go out late and they stay out until the sun comes up.’ He shook his head in wonder. ‘It’s all topsy-turvy.’

  Glancing down, he noticed a group of people excitedly pointing up at the sky and taking photos.

  ‘What are they looking at?’ he asked Elvira. ‘I can’t see anything.’

  ‘At us, probably.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Well … maybe they’re tourists and they don’t have eagles where they come from.’

  This gave Byron an idea.

  ‘Then let’s fly down so they can see us close up!’ he said. ‘They’d like that.’

  ‘Not a good idea,’ Elvira replied. ‘Humans can be very dangerous and you never know what might happen.’

  ‘Oh,’ he said, and peered over the side once more. ‘Hey, what do you think that man is doing? See, he’s climbing up the outside and he’s waving something and making lots of noise.’

  ‘I think he wants to scare us off,’ said Elvira.

  ‘What on earth for?’

  ‘Maybe they don’t want us here.’

  Byron was outraged. ‘You’ve got to be kidding! We’re not doing anything bad. What about all these seagulls? There are heaps of them flying around and stopping wherever they want. They make an awful mess as well and there’s a lot more of them than of us.’

  Elvira sighed. She had hoped they’d get through Byron’s trip to the city without any mishaps, but she had her doubts. The previous day he’d insisted on flying over and under the Sydney Harbour Bridge three times in a row, frightening a bridge climber and almost causing an accident between a sailing ship and a dragon boat. The crew had been so fascinated by his antics that they stopped rowing to watch and almost collided.

  ‘Anyway,’ she said, ‘it’s time for us to go to Taronga. We’ve got a busy day ahead and there’s so much to see before the bird show begins. We need to get a move on.’

  Byron wasn’t listening. ‘What about a ride on the Manly Ferry? And another look at Luna Park. Surely we have time for that?’

  ‘No,’ Elvira said firmly. ‘Our next stop is the zoo, and then we’re going home.’

  Byron looked a little disappointed, so she added, ‘We can always come back again, you know. This doesn’t have to be our one and only trip to Sydney.’

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Elvira and Byron spent some hours enjoying the wonderful sights and attractions of Taronga Zoo. Just as Byron had been her tour guide in the Pilliga region, it was now Elvira’s turn to do the same for him.

  The highlight of Byron’s day so far had been the Sky Safari, a cableway that ran up the hill from the harbour and gave visitors an aerial view of the zoo. The two of them hitched a ride on one of the cable cars, thrilling the passengers inside and causing quite a commotion.

  But for Elvira the best was yet to come. For her, it would be the afternoon bird show. She had decided to surprise her old trainer, Shelly, so she was careful to remain out of her way all morning.

  At last the time had come to reveal herself.

  Elvira and Byron watched from a spot in the treetops overlooking the amphitheatre as Monika the brolga finished her performance. Shelly was about to wind up the show when Elvira made her move.

  Sweeping down from the treetops, she flew low over the audience and circled a couple of times. Then, much to the delight of the crowd, she started to demonstrate her spectacular aerial skills.

  Shelly’s mouth dropped open in surprise. The bird handler recognised Elvira immediately. She could hardly believe that the bird now demonstrating her awesome flying abilities was the eagle that had gone missing some time ago.

  ‘This is a truly special occasion,’ Shelly told the audience. ‘This beautiful eagle that you see here today is called Elvira. She came to the zoo as a very young bird with injuries that prevented her from surviving in the wild. She was lost during a violent storm a few months ago and we had given up hope of ever seeing her again. But she has managed to survive somehow and she’s returned of her own accord. It really is quite remarkable!’

  Huge applause greeted Elvira as she finished her flying exhibition — gliding down and landing on her trainer’s outstretched arm, as she had done so often in the past.

  Elvira spent the next little while as the centre of attention, with staff from all over the zoo fussing over her, amazed and excited at the sudden reappearance of this magnificent bird. When things had quietened down a bit, and most of the workers had returned to their various jobs, Elvira decided it was time to call upon Byron, who had been waiting patiently all this time.

  Shelly’s eyes widened in astonishment as the magnificent male eagle flew down from the treetops and landed at her feet. ‘This just keeps getting better and better,’ she exclaimed. ‘Elvira has brought along a mate as well!’

  Elvira was bursting with happiness and wanted to celebrate. She realised she didn’t need to dance like Monika or crow like Eggie.

  She didn’t need those skills to be happy. Her adventures had taught her a valuable lesson: happiness was something that came from the inside, not the outside.

  Elvira was an eagle. Flying was her greatest pleasure. And for her, there was no better way to express the joy she felt than in the magic of flight.

  So she spread her wings and rose into the sky, loving the rush of cool air that streamed beneath her, lifting her higher and higher. After a moment Byron joined her and together the pair put on an incredible aerial display that would be talked about for many years to come.

  Elvira knew this was the last time she would ever perform before a zoo audience, but she had no regrets. The memory of this occasion would last her a lifetime, and she was satisfied.

  It was now time to go home.

  SPECIES FOUND IN THE PILLIGA FOREST

  Acknowledgement is made of the support and advice provided by the National Parks & Wildlife Service, Baradine, NSW.

  The PILLIGA FOREST is the largest intact woodland in eastern Australia, stretching across half a million hectares of New South Wales. It is home to many threatened woodland species struggling to survive, including the glossy black cockatoo, barking owl, hooded robin, Pilliga mouse, eastern pygmy possum, koala, and rufous bettong.

  The PILLIGA MOUSE is a species of rodent found only in the Pilliga Forest, an
d was first discovered in 1975. It is nocturnal, meaning it sleeps during the day and is active at night. The mouse lives communally in simple burrows consisting of a nest chamber lined with leaves, with two entrances. Its diet consists of fungus, seeds, insects and green shoots.

  The WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE is Australia’s largest bird of prey and is found in every state. It has broad wings, with a wingspan of up to 2.3 m and is a large blackish-brown bird, easily recognisable by its long, wedge-shaped tail. It is known as a ‘booted eagle’, because of its legs, which are heavily feathered all the way down to the toes. During the breeding season, pairs of eagles perform dramatic aerobatic displays over their territory and are known to attack hang gliders and paragliders, damaging the fabric of these gliders with their talons.

  The BROLGA is also known as the Australian crane. Brolgas usually bond for life and live in small family groups. They are well known for their intricate mating dance. Sometimes just one brolga dances for its mate, but often they dance in pairs and sometimes a whole group of about a dozen brolgas dance together, lining up roughly opposite each other before they start.

  The SOUTHERN BOOBOOK OWL is the smallest and most common owl on the Australian mainland. It is found in a wide variety of habitats, from woodland to scrubland and semi-desert areas. Its prey is generally insects, beetles and moths, mice and small birds. It is also known as the mopoke and its ‘boo-book’ call is a familiar part of the Australian bush at night.

  The BARKING OWL is a medium-sized brown-coloured nocturnal bird, with white spots on its wings, a streaked chest and staring yellow eyes. The barking owl has two main calls: one is a dog-like ‘woof-woof ’, while the other is a much louder wailing cry, said to sound like that of a screaming woman.

  The GLOSSY BLACK COCKATOO mates for life. The female lays only one egg every two years and the fledgling stays with the parents until the next breeding session. These birds prefer to nest in the hollows of large, old eucalypt trees. They feed almost exclusively on female casuarina or she-oak seeds, which are extracted from small cones that have a tough outer hull. Young birds have to learn from their parents how to extract the seeds from the cones, and require plenty of practice before leaving the nest.

  The SQUIRREL GLIDER is a nocturnal gliding possum. A ‘flying’ membrane that extends from their fifth front toe to the back of their foot on both sides enables them to glide up to 50 metres from tree to tree. Their large bushy tails, which can be curled around branches to enable them to hang on, also act as a rudder, steering them in whatever direction they wish. They are closely related to sugar gliders but are much larger and have a longer and bushier tail.

  The KOALA is peaceful by nature and spends up to eighteen hours a day resting or sleeping. It is a finicky eater and only eats certain types of eucalyptus leaves. These leaves contain a substance that is poisonous to most other mammals, but the koala’s digestive system breaks down and neutralises these poisons. Koalas very rarely drink water as they gain whatever moisture they need from the eucalyptus leaves.

  The HOODED ROBIN is found all over Australia and is the only black and white robin. The male has a black head (or hood), white chest and underparts, black wings with white wing-bars. Its eyes, bill and feet are also black. The female is grey-brown in colour, with dark brown wings and white wing-bars. The cup-shaped nest of the hooded robin is made from soft, dry grass and bark, all bound together by spider webs, feathers and fur.

  The BLACK STRIPED WALLABY is also known as the scrub wallaby. It is a shy, nocturnal grazer, preferring thick scrub where it can easily remain hidden. It is of medium size, and is grey-brown with a narrow black stripe from its crown to its rump. Rust-red patches show on its shoulders, arms and upper legs, with prominent white cheeks and hip stripes.

  The RUFOUS BETTONG is also known as the rufous rat-kangaroo and is about the size of a fully grown rabbit. It has reddish-grey fur, pointed ears, a hairy muzzle, and is pale red round the eyes. Rufous bettongs sleep during the day in cone-shaped nests constructed of grass, which are built in a shallow depression at the base of a tussock or fallen log. They can travel up to 4.5 km in a night searching for food – grass, herbs, tubers, roots and fungi. They rarely drink, except in times of drought, and can produce up to three young in a single year.

  The GOANNA or monitor is a lizard. Goannas range in size from about 20 cm to 1.3 m, not counting the tail, and include the largest living today — the Komodo dragon of Indonesia. When chased or cornered goannas will often rear up, inflate flaps around their throat and emit a harsh hissing noise. They have a huge appetite and will eat dead and rotting remains, as well as lizards, snakes, insects, birds and eggs, rats and mice. Two species common in the Pilliga are the lace monitor (which has a striped tail and climbs trees when scared) and the sand goanna (with a yellow-tipped tail), which runs into a burrow when frightened.

  The DESERT CRAB can breathe in air as well as water. During dry conditions it can spend years sleeping in a 1 metre deep burrow with the opening plugged, only coming out after heavy rains fill the streams and lagoons.

  The WARRUMBUNGLE CANNIBAL SNAIL is a predatory snail that tracks down and eats snails and other invertebrates .

  The SUN MOTH is a small day-flying moth usually active only in the middle of the day on hot sunny days. They look like a moth when resting but on opening their wings the brightly coloured hindwings make them look like small butterflies.

  There are 55 different species of BUTTERFLIES found in the Pilliga forest, reflecting the value of the Pilliga as a large area of native woodland. The chequered swallowtail is one of the largest and likes to lay its eggs on native citrus species, as well as citrus trees in gardens .

  OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES

  By Pat Clarke

  The Magic Forest of Goonoo:

  When the native wildlife of the Goonoo Forest is threatened by trappers, Rover the barking owl comes up with a plan to save them.

  The Flying Lesson:

  Wally the white cockatoo teaches granddad to fly but on his maiden flight they end up in the lion’s compound at Dubbo Zoo.

  A One-eyed Chook Called Sheila

  Danger, adventure and an unlikely romance await Sheila the one-eyed chook when she and her pals seek refuge in the Goonoo forest.

  Return of the Fox:(Further Adventures of a One-eyed Chook)

  Rufus the fox is intent upon revenge. Sheila and her friend Elvis the wedge-tailed eagle are in mortal danger. Can love, courage and friendship save the day?

  Howie the Yowie

  On a quest to find his family, Howie has an eerie experience at a haunted billabong and is visited by the ghostly apparition known as the Min Min light. Are there really yowies, bunyips and black panthers in the Blue Mountains?