Ruling the roost is this week’s subject of a photo challenge on a site which I really like. (Nan’s Farm Inside Out.) The authors encourage participants to post photos of pets  ruling the roost, or pets which may have ruled the roost in the past.

Not to keep pets in our new apartment was one of the easier choices we made. We downsized. We tried to make our lives simple. To have a pet in an apartment seemed not to need discussion. After all, we aimed for an easy life.

Many people in our complex do have cats and dogs. There’s a lovely community feeling here. It’s fairly easy to befriend a dog and its owner as they come and go on their walks to nearby parks, so I don’t feel too deprived.

Because I don’t have a dog, and don’t want to post tonight about dogs I’ve cared for, I looked further afield for my subject. My rebel self decided to post about an Australian White Ibis (Threskinornis moluccai) because of a photo I took last year.

People either love or hate Australian White Ibis. Some people call them ‘the farmer’s friend’ because the birds flock to farms where locusts and other insects are troublesome. There they gorge themselves. In the country, these birds have pristine white feathers which contrast starkly with their long black beaks, heads and legs.

In cities and towns, on the other hand, they can often be seen scavenging in rubbish and town parks. These ibis often have dingy and untidy grey feathers. Their detractors call them ‘tip turkeys’ which I think is unfair, and mostly untrue.

When we lived in Doubleview, a Perth suburb, I often  walked around the nearby lakes  and watched the ibis and other birds.

The ibis ruling the roost

This first bird typifies the scruffy ibises, maligned by so many, with its dishevelled grey feathers.

Another ibis looks more composed as it contemplates a plunge in Lake Gwelup in the Stirling wetlands.

But this is my favourite, the one which flew two kilometres from the water and is ruling the roost on a house in Doubleview.

Do you have a pet which insists on ruling the roost, or  do you maintain your composure as leader of the tribe?