We have had some Stone Bush Curlews living on the front lawn for years now. First there was Nigel. He stood under the Frangipani tree day in day out. In the rain and sunshine. He ate bugs and at night he called for a mate. With that errie girl screaming call. The kind that makes you wonder who is being murdered the first time you ever hear it. Then he disappeared one day. A few months later he was back. He had a mate with him. We called her Nigella. I took an instant dislike to her as she started hissing and raising her wings at me. I would be trying to get to the mailbox and she would run at me, wings raised hissing. Like bbb…aaa…ccc…hh… this is not your house.
Next thing you know, there’s a pair of cute fluff ball babies. Nigella protected them while Nigel stood around looking like a statue day in and day out as he did before. The two babies got names – Nicho Hynes after the Sharks NRL player who we like watching play, and the other one was called Pablo Escabar. A friend I met up north at a photography conference messaged me, and said I should call the second one Pablo Escabar after the drug king guy because a certain Nigella had done cocaine. If you know you know as they say.
The babies grew up fast and then one disappeared, leaving just one semi adult looking bird freeloading at home with Nigel and Nigella. Then he left too.
The Curlew couple lived on our lawn and wandered around the street a bit until they presented us with a second set of twins. Same thing happened again. One grew up to be a semi adult freeloader then left, and the other completely disappeared.
Then a third bach. I got back into naming animals that appear on our property randomly, and we call these Rocky and Rocco. So far, they are living happily as a family unit of 4 but I keep an eye on them everyday or more like, they keep an eye on me.
They blocked me driving into my own driveway one night the other week. I had to drive up and around the street and come in at a different angle to get past them. Nigel gave me the Mexican standoff inches from my front bumper and he wouldn’t move out of the way. I had to actually reverse the car to get around him. They prevented me putting out the bins on bin day, mowing my lawn and even getting out the front door.
I saw them through the screen door standing right in the doorway so with my phone on video mode, I filmed the back of the screen door and then me opening it. Next thing Nigella raises her wings and hisses at me. The babies are like ‘What are you doing Mum?”. Best part? I put the video on Tiktok and nearly 300,000 views, tons of likes and new followers later, it’s still going strong being reposted by dozens of people. I got popcorn and watched the fights on my video in the comments section. A guy said “Turn a hose on them”. Women came out to fight that guy. I would never hurt them or their babies but it was interesting reading the comments. I never knew there was so many Curlew lovers in the world, and bird haters in general. I made a second video of them preventing the bins being put out, and a third filmed from the lounge window of Nigella and a baby eating bugs on the lawn and changing my lawn mowing plans for the day.
Because I have a small Tiktok following, anything over 100k views is considered viral. Which of course brings out the scammers. It wasn’t long before I started receiving messages from people who scan Tiktok for content and message you. They work for ‘media’ companies. The message says they have worked with big brand names, and proceed to drop some big names, and would like to know who filmed the video i.e. who has copyright and they promise if you send them your video, they will put it onto their YouTube channel with 12 million subscribers and you will get either a 50% share or 60/40 share of profits.
As with anything that sounds too good to be true, I did some research. I found a woman who had a video she filmed and got contacted. She was desperate for cash at the time and figured it was worth a go. She uploaded her video and then crickets. Nothing from them. No correspondence, no money. Just a contract that she signed. Sometimes in these contracts she pointed out, there’s a clause buried deep that give that company the rights to any future videos you film. She said the other danger is that once you hand over your video, the media company takes it over and if you upload it anywhere else, you get a copyright claim takedown notice, even though you are the original owner. They are shady companies and there’s lots of them. They relentlessly message you from different companies and different scammers working for the same company. The same thing probably happens with viral photos that the world jumps on. It’s important to do your research and not be swayed by them dropping lots of big-name companies they claim to work for and the promise of money.
Meanwhile I am enjoying the Curlews, the comments on my videos, and the joy of telling my kids, I’m a viral Tiktoker.