Living in the bush it's possible to hear the approach of a wind gust from some distance as the trees and airflow combine to generate quite an impressive roar that gets louder and louder. This night it must have been quite a wind, because I could hear it from inside - and a little scary as it closed in - you might expect a jumbo jet to be hurtling toward you. A little while after it went through I heard a bit of clunking from the direction of the front verandah and went to investigate. Here is what I found. I'm guessing this fledgling magpie got dislodged from its perch and headed toward the light of the verandah. It seemed a little stunned but otherwise ok. I sat out there with it for a while (and took these 2 pics) and, when it looked a bit more alert, left it alone. I'm fairly confident it would have called for its parents at daybreak and been reunited. It was pretty cool to spend a bit of time so close to a wild bird.
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Sudden burst of hot weather brought out a myriad of small(ish) creatures. These moths have no mouth parts and survive on fat stores made as a caterpillar for long enough to find a mate, breed and for the female to lay her eggs. Another (less innocuous) night-time visitor was this Black Bull Ant who was dragging around another Bull Ant (still alive) on the verandah to no clear purpose. In the heat of the day a Red Meat Ant found a dead blowfly and was struggling to drag it across the sand to its nest entrance. When others rushed to 'help' things went from bad to worse - with each pulling in a different direction. One of the ants did bite off the fly's wings to make it easier to drag - but it didn't seem to make much difference. I'm sure they worked it out - too hot for me to wait and see. It's a bumper time for the bees with a large range of flowers available for nectar/pollen collection. Which suits all manner of birds and insects, including the Hoverfly.
The Wattle blossoms have finished, the Grevilleas still going strong and now the first Bottlebrush flowers begin to appear: Which is good for the honeyeaters - it seems the LWs (Little Wattlebirds) are going to breed twice this year - well, the female has been busy gathering nesting materials, in-between feeding her existing offspring. They'll still be fed, at least until their siblings are out and about. While they're able to collect nectar, the insect catching skills needed to supplement diet are not quite yet developed.
First, rather a big baby - this Red Wattlebird fledgling's curiosity drowned out its parent's alarm call - and here is one of the Little Wattle Bird babies - If you'd like to see more baby photos, click 'read more'
Small piles of dirt of various construction arise in large numbers around the garden and, if required, a judicious swipe of the boot generally levels them out. Sometimes the swipe yields something I don't really want to see. Bull ants, especially the nocturnal black ones, are one of the few critters I don't enjoy having around the block. Their superb eyesight (they will chase you) and ability to hang on with those jaws (designed for chomping through wood) while delivering a very painful and venomous sting, make them something to be avoided, if possible. Also carrying a sting - but much less irritable - the honey bees have found a drink they like in a bucket of wood-chips that filled with water over winter. Here they are on a nectar exchange - bees pass nectar from one to the other to add enzymes and break down the complex sugars - around 100 times! Thank you to Amazing Bees for providing me with some information.
Quite a few of these delightful birds around - here an adult and juvenile test the water. Another adult landed soon after and was not intimidated when a Little Wattlebird turned up and tried to send it packing.
If you'd like to see some pics from the power struggle that ensued - and see which bird prevailed - click on 'Read More'. The Little Wattlebirds are nesting in the jasmine and other plants that hide the side of the shed. Mum is sitting on the rail, bottom left. Here are both parents, with dad telling me off for hanging around. Which I shouldn't have been as I have a big weed and mulch project to get finished before summer. The original mulch has been there for six or seven years and has broken down nicely to create a few inches of actual soil on top of the sand and limestone. Weeds have been enjoying this for a while now but it's time they went. I'll use the soil/weed mix to top coat the driveways which are bare sand/rock and get eroded by the elements. Big, fat trailer load of mulch produced on site, mainly dead wattle and fallen limbs from gum trees, and fed through tractor-driven chipper. It doesn't take long to fade from pink to the grey you see in front of it, but it does a good job of weed-suppression. Still, it's a labour of love - got a spare day or so?
When I was watching the mad antics of the New Holland Honeyeaters today - and taking a few photos - there was one bird that looked, well, wrong. It wasn't until I looked at pics later that I realised the bird was different in a few ways, but one of them was quite striking. The adult bird's expression is priceless. That's right - no white eye-ring. A blue eyed baby New Holland. Well, all babies are cute, so they say.
I'd often admired these tiny flowers that appear on the block in spring and wondered what they were - The answer came unexpectedly when I was weeding and trying to pull out some fleshy looking grass - tough to remove as it has these corms - in this case two of them. These gave me the clue I needed and I discovered that this is, in fact, Onion or Guildford Grass (Romulea rosea). Not great news, as it's an invasive South African plant. I'm sure any gardener who has it 'ruining' their lawn could have told me what it was. Still, the flowers are very pretty. Next goal is to identify this, also tiny, plant. Any ideas?
These blue-eyed birds are plentiful at the moment. But I really wanted to show you the fledglings -
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December 2020
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