Willy wagtails everywhere in Torquay, Victoria

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Here’s a warm, fuzzy story to start my day although it may not be yours – start of day, I mean. ‘Our’ Torquay is on the south coast of Victoria and a popular tourist destination. It is home to artist Mike McLean, known locally as the ‘bird guy’. One of his interests is painting willy wagtails on discarded fence palings. He gives the paintings away to locals and sells others for $20. Over the last decade, the paintings have taken flight, pardon the pun, and have appeared in Japanese temples, Venetian canals, on the Santa Monica foreshore, on first-class flights and on an icy runway in Antarctica. The little black-and white wagtails are survivors, living in rural, suburban and retail areas. In Torquay, images of the birds appear on shop fronts, on letter-boxes and hanging in trees. One family go hunting for these images on their bikes and their record so far is 89. The photo shows a willy wagtail painted on corrugated iron attached to old timber. I bought it at a market many years ago.