Yesterday I was sitting at the war memorial in Hyde Park, just passing some time, when an Ibis came and stood next to me. I had a few words with it and it just stayed by me as I sat there. After a short while it adopted a yoga tree pose (standing tall on one leg, with the foot of the other leg tucked up on the thigh of the standing leg). I considered that maybe it was a yogi-in-training in a past life, and had done something unruly to be reborn as an Ibis. I also considered that maybe it would attain enlightenment after life as an Ibis in Hyde Park. Just thoughts as I was passing some time!
I quite liked the idea of being in the presence of an Ibis yogi. Though I did wonder why it was standing beside me, because I wasn’t eating food that it might have been interested in. When left, I noticed that it moved to where I’d been sitting and started pecking around for crumbs that I might have dropped.
Today at lunch I was sitting in a park and several Ibis were wandering around. I was just eating merrily, as I do at the best and worst of times, when one of the Ibis stretched its head down to a very shallow muddy puddle on the gravel walkway. The puddle was only about 75mm deep. The Ibis angled its long beak so that it was laid horizontally on the ground, and then proceeded to sip the muddy shallow puddle water. It did this several times.
I’m sure these Ibis are doing just fine, as there’s plenty of them around, but it kind of broke my heart that it might be thirsty for good water. Or maybe they don’t care about the quality or depth of their water sources... Anyway, as I thought it may look for crumbs where I'd been sitting, I left a little rice under my bench for it when I left.
Yep. It seemed to like the rice.
I saw these two Ibis's on my way to the ferry after work, and I like that they are walking in unison. Very civilized, for Ibis's...
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