What are you looking at?

Another animal portrait for today's blip, this time though it's not a member of my menagerie.

This ostrich belongs to my neighbour, and he occupies the paddock between our two houses. He's an impressive specimen and is now the last of what was once a good sized pride of ostriches, the others since being sold.

He's a bit of a tourist trap, with many visitors to the valley stopping to talk to him on account of he being a most inquisitive bird. Indeed whenever I take the dogs for a walk he parades along the fenceline, letting us know that we're on the edge of his territory.

Every now an again he'll put on an impressive show of territorial bluster, dropping down to the ground and puffing out his wings and swaying his head from side to side. It's not often that animals look both daft and yet quite sinister at the same time. No wonder there's a big sign on the fence warning not to go near the fence in case of the bird kicking...