Laughter in the rain

The birds are looking for company, I think! We are having so much rain for this time of the year and I think that the birds are as tired of it as we are. Where is our beautiful sunshine?
Today a kookaburra flew in and perched on the railing of the veranda. We do not encourage these meat eating birds - they are more than capable of snatching a finch for a snack - so to have one visit is a rarety. We were all out enjoying a cuppa on the veranda while Steven (known to many as "Firie") held a friend's baby. I had been babysitting while bub's Mum was at a job interview but hot tea and wriggly tots is not a good combination so I handed my job to my son - and Steven is great with kids.
The kookaburra sat quietly on the rail so Steven stood up with Samarrah and took her over closer. He - and we - expected the bird to fly as he got closer but even when Samarrah reached out it didn't bat an eyelid!

f/6.3  1/60sec  ISO 400  30mm

Then Steven held his hand under the bird's chest to see if it would stand on his fingers.

f/6.3  1/60sec ISO400 75mm

The bird climbed on his fingers briefly and flew off - but returned to the veranda. The second time Steven held his fingers out the bird climbed on and stayed there.

f/6.3  1/60sec ISO 400  39mm

After taking a good look at his admirers our kookaburra friend flew off.
It is amazing that a wild bird should be so approachable. Not all kookaburras are this quiet. If it returns again we will probably shoo it away. I don't want to encourage it to hang around.
AJ