It was about a year ago that I first heard a new bird call near my home in Leeton
The noise was a bit like the Plover and that sounds like an angry rubber duck, but the one that lives nearby doesn't usually venture out of Waipukurau Park and into our street.
This sound was more like a bird making a Tiktok video about a disappointing takeaway meal or something, so it wasn't easy to place.
Then when I was out for a walk in Russet Street, the source became identifiable as this colourful blob made a comic dash across the bitumen.
A Guineafowl had arrived in our suburb and it seemed the most unlikely thing to cross my path.
Now I don't know much about birds but if I had to describe it then I'd say it looks like Roadrunner grew obese in retirement.
Admittedly that does seem to be a feature of lower-socioeconomic areas, so maybe the Guineafowl felt at home out here?
Sometimes I ponder whether the stony-faced avians offer companionship to a bird that might've been dumped or escaped from an aviary.
When I lived in Wagga the Aviary at the Botanic Gardens blew down and many of their menagerie escaped into the suburbs around Willans Hill.
So I quizzed the couple who own the birds as I saw them tending to their garden, but they said the Guineafowl just arrived one day.
"Where does it roost?" I wondered aloud and the couple pointed to a nearby Hickory Wattle.
This seemed unlikely, since I couldn't see the Guineafowl had wings.
It looked like it had been sculpted from balloons and sorta sounded like it too!
Yet Wikipedia states these birds can fly distances and I began to look up at the tree when passing it in the evening or morning.
Recently I spotted it on a branch close to what might've been the third storey of a building.
Maybe I stared too long because the Guineafowl seemed to start making an anxious noise.
So I looked away, since I can relate to feeling like an odd duck in a small town.
Rest easy Guineafowl, we're all trying to find comfort and Leeton welcomes new settlers.
