… than a Vindaloo Curry with extra chilli and a side serving of chilli. Man has it been hot. I mean it’s been so hot that your eye balls sweat. Try and take a cold shower to cool down and the water coming out of the cold tap is hot. The dog refuses to go for a walk because the pavement is blisteringly hot. We did get a little respite for a day, the temperature dropped by 10º to 34ºC and everyone said it was chilly enough to look for a sweater. The third round of the seventh circle of Dante’s Inferno is a great Plain of Burning Sand scorched by great flakes of flame falling slowly down from the sky and it is an apt description of this summer here in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. Cyclone Sean has a lot to answer for.

Yet I’m amazed how the natural world carries on. The Rainbow Bee-Eaters chicks have successfully fledged and are busy building themselves up for the long flight north at the end of March. Splendid Fairy Wrens, Thornbills and Silvereyes still look for insects in the undergrowth. Kookaburras, crows and magpies can be seen looking for the unwary to feed upon. The farmers paddocks are now just bleached stubble. The mice and other small animals that live in them have nowhere to hide and are easy pickings for the Black Shouldered Kites and Nankeen Kestrels.

 

Walking along the river in the early morning or late evening it’s possible to see the birds, but they quickly retreat to places of deep shade as the temperatures rise. Come about 10 o’clock in the morning until about five in the afternoon they are almost totally silent. Despite the heat there is still quite a volume of water in the river. It is the water that enables the wildlife to survive.