Life at Home; a busy little garden

The year is winding down and so am I, so for the last 'normal' post of the year I'm doing something low-key and a bit indulgent. (My actual last post of the year is always the New Years Eve 'Farewell to the Year'.) We live in a nice little duplex in the south-western Canberra suburb of Duffy. We moved in here in January 2011; Lou had lived here with her two children previously but had moved out for a while, so when we moved back in it was a blank slate, including the garden. She had done some nice native plantings, mostly out the back and especially after the horrific fires of 2003 which burned much of her back yard (and ironically brought us together, but that's another story). She gave me carte blanche with the garden, so I set out to convert it into an all-natives space (except for a camellia which had survived the fires, and some herbs and salad greens in pots). Here is the front as it looked when we moved in, courtesy of Google Maps street view. (Bear with me as I set the scene, as I would for a post about a national park for instance - the post really is eventually about the yard wildlife.)

The only plants in this 2010 photo that are still there are the big paperbark
(back right), the bottlebrushes on the side along the laneway, and an inconspicuous
grevillea (to the left of the light pole). Removing the huge snarky roses by the
driveway was a battle of Tolkienesque proportions!

It took time; here's the front yard taken from in front of the garage three years after we moved in. 

The 'dwarf' wattle in the foreground now towers over us and has to be cut back
regularly to allow us to access the front door!

And here's the same view today as the Google view above, though Google had the advantage of extra height.

The paperbarks and the bottlebrushes have grown enormously and,
with the teatree by the front corner of the driveway, give us a lot of privacy
and the wildlife a lot of shelter. The grevillea has been forced to grow out
over the footpath in search of sunlight. The 'dwarf' wattle shows as the bright
green foliage at the end of the driveway and the overhang in front of the garage door.

The laneway bottlebrushes provide a massive attraction for birds and insects
in October-November (though I see that in 2015 above they were flowering
in December - definitely a sign of the times since!).

You might think that our lounge room would be dark and a bit claustrophobic as a result, but it's not so (even though this photo was taken on a rather dreary afternoon).

We can sit inside and watch the birds coming to the bath and preening on
the convenient paperbark branch.

Out the back we got rid of the 'lawn' and the rotary clothesline and planted grassland herbs and had a bit of paving done to support the table and chairs. The plantings on the mound outside the fence again give us privacy and provide home and food for our wild neighbours.

Looking down on the back garden from the balcony; this was taken nearly six years ago
and it's filled in quite a bit since then, but it gives an idea.

And this is the view from the kitchen window; the pot plants on the table are because we've basically run out of garden space for more plantings!

OK, that's quite enough scene-setting, let's get to the animals.

When I left my previous abode, after 27 years, to move across town and start my new life here, I was very tempted to catch some of the skinks that lived in the back yard and transplant them, partly because I had reason to suppose that the house and yard would be bulldozed. In the end I didn't have time, and to my relief the house is still standing, but when I got here I discovered that we have our own skink population! They are Delicate Skinks Lampropholis delicata, a common local species. However they are very flighty (with reason, as I once saw one taken from the back yard by a Sacred Kingfisher, the only one I've seen here). With some hesitation here's a terrible photo, taken in a hurry in the late afternoon when I was moving concrete tiles in the garden.

The Delicate Skink is on the right, but its friend was even more of a surprise.
Fortunately I have better photos of it.

Southern Marbled Gecko Christinus marmoratus, by the front door
when we came home one night. They are not too uncommon in Canberra gardens,
especially where there are rocks, but it is unclear whether they have arrived
unaided or have been accidentally transported. We don't have a rocky reserve
anywhere nearby so I suspect the latter explanation in our case. They are established
here now and our neighbours also report them from time to time.

Over the years we've recorded 63 species of birds in, from and over our little yard, which has been very gratifying. The habitat values that we've provided here are well complemented by a lovely little park, planted with eucalypts and other native species, just outside our back gate. (Unfortunately a few years ago someone misguidedly planted a mess of exotics in the corner of the park just over the back fence from us, which clashes completely with the rest of the park. Fortunately it hasn't detracted from the overall habitat values of the park, but is aesthetically wince-making.)

The view across the park from our back gate; the eucalypt on the right gives us great
pleasure, as it appears above the big paperbarks along our back fence and attracts lots of
birds. Fortunately it and the paperbarks seem to be growing at about the same rate!
(The exotics are to the right of it.)

OK, back to the birds! There a couple of bottlebrushes (Callistemon spp.) facing the balcony, which flower intermittently from spring to autumn and regularly attract the birds, with the balcony an excellent vantage point.

Crimson Rosellas Platycercus elegans are abundant Canberra birds, but I remind
myself often that if they only lived in a remote corner of Australia people
would pay good money to go and see them. We are very fortunate.

Eastern Spinebills Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris are small long-billed honeyeaters
which are attracted especially to tubular flowers (a bottlebrush 'flower' is
composed of numerous such flowers). They also like the Eremophila by the
front window.

The Yellow-faced Honeyeater Caligavis chrysops is a seasonal migrant,
breeding in suburban hill reserves or the ranges; this one stopped off for a
day or so one spring.     

Nor is the bottlebrush's food value lost when the flowering finishes. Many smaller birds search through the yard's shrubbery for insect prey.

Silvereye Zosterops lateralis gleaning the underside of the leaves for small animals.

Another major attraction is the big banksia which is actually just outside our boundary but which overhangs the garden and the end of the balcony by our bedroom window. It attracts an array of birds, though the Red Wattlebirds Anthochaera carunculata, big aggressive honeyeaters, tend to monopolise it when it's in full flower.

Immature Red Wattlebird at a nearly spent banksia flower; its parents would
have known not to bother with it, but it will learn.

At night in spring and summer the Grey-headed Fruit Bats Pteropus poliocephalus come at night to squabble and feast on the banksia nectar from their regular summer camp by Lake Burley Griffin, some 10km away. However even after the flowering has finished the banksia still attracts visitors, including probably the most dramatic birds to visit the yard.

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos Zanda funerea are big birds, some 60cm long,
which wander widely in search of food, banksia seeds being favoured.

The beak is hugely powerful; they nip off the cone and clutch it in a claw, then
crush it and extract the seeds, dropping the pulp. Our balcony is littered with
their food scraps on a good day!

Other less anticipated food sources are present too - House Sparrows have featured a couple of times! This fierce little Collared Sparrowhawk Tachyspiza cirrocephala took its lunch into the shelter of the back fence paperbarks to eat in peace.

Though I tried not to disturb it, I really wanted to record this event, and eventually
the sparrowhawk took its meal elsewhere for more privacy.

More surprising was the time I saw this Magpie just over the road killing a sparrow! I'm sure it's not a unique event, but I'd never seen it.

Others come by more in the hope being fed; we used to put out seed from time to time on the balcony rail, but when one particular Sulphur-crested Cockatoo started destroying our rail when no food was available, and even the neighbours' roof gable end, the final straw, we had to stop. It only takes one to spoil it for everybody!

Australian King-Parrots Alisterus scapularis (male above, female below)
stop drop by from time to time, just to check. (Photos taken through the glass.)

A Laughing Kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae also turned up expectantly for a while - we'd never fed them but someone else obviously did - but gave up after a while. We can still hear them out in the park though.

Australia's (and probably the world's) largest kingfisher will always be welcome here,
but we don't pay them for the privilege.

Water is always an attraction and we keep bird baths topped up in front and back, all year round. We might think that it wouldn't be attractive in the depths of winter, but we'd be wrong!

You'll have to take my word for it that this is a female Superb Fairywren Malurus cyaneus
completely submerged in the bath in June; and yes, that's ice on the water surface!

Sprinklers can be attractive too.

Crested Pigeon Ocyphaps lophotes, having a nice shower under the sprinkler
(perched on a mesh covering we used to use to protect the salad vegie seedlings)
making sure that the armpits aren't neglected!

And of course birds were bathing long before we helped out!

This Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita, leaf-bathing in the big eucalypt
in the park, as seen from our balcony. This means opening wings and feathers and
flapping to allow water from wet leaves to penetrate to the skin.

Some come to loaf.

Red Wattlebird sunning on the balcony rail, feathers fully fluffed up. It seems that
this behaviour, widespread in birds, allows sun access to the skin, to discourage
skin parasites, especially lice.

Quite a few larger birds take advantage of the high ridgeline of the steeply sloped roof, which presumably gives a good all-round view. Here are a couple of pigeons availing themselves of it.

Common Bronzewing Phaps chalcoptera.

Crested Pigeon; they're often up there. I really think this is one of the
world's most attractive pigeons.

Others just pop by to check, I suspect.

Immature Grey Butcherbird Cracticus torquatus. We often hear their strong melodious
calls from the park or even over near the shops, but this is the only one I recall seeing
actually in the yard.

Finally, with regard to birds, the cuckoo known as the Pacific Koel has become something of a celebrity, both famous and infamous, in Canberra over the past decade or so. There was a time when they were a very rare visitor here indeed. They migrate from the tropics each year to breed, and in past times didn't come much further south than Sydney. Since then they have become a very common summer visitor, laying eggs in the nests of hapless local Red Wattlebirds, who'd never encountered the threat before. Additionally we've discovered that Canberrans are divided into camps over this - those like us who welcome the wild, almost manic, ringing calls as a sure sign of spring, and, well, the rest of us...

Male Pacific Koel - a very handsome bird - on the line across the road.

Female Koel, striking too in a different way, in the excellent eucalypt out the back.

And some seriously weird koel behaviour that I've not seen before or since. Here's my account
of it at the time. "There were two males sitting in the big paperbark out the front, unusually
oblivious to us. Mostly silent, other than an occasional single call, and one brief 'wirra',
facing each other only 60cm apart, one slightly higher. Alternately they flicked their wings
at each other but no other movement. Of course I don't know how long they'd been doing it
when we got home, but they seemed to accept after about 15 minutes that they weren't
achieving much and just sat and stared at each other. An hour and a half later they're
still doing so; fascinating beasts which constantly surprise me."
And it's great that nature can even surprise us in our own garden!

And some smaller animals to finish with. The post is already longer than I'd envisaged (not for the first time!), so I'll just offer you some labelled photos; it's that time of year.

BEETLES

Golden Stag Beetle female Lamprima aurata; sadly yes, an ex-beetle, but we
were honoured that she opted to expired on our balcony rail

Long-nosed Lycid Porrostoma rhipidum on the Kunzea ambigua by our driveway
(as were the subjects of the next two photos). This beetle is highly toxic, and
various other beetles, plus other insects, mimic its colouring to gain protection.

Nectar Scarabs Phyllotocus rufipennis enjoying a romantic lunch.
They are among the mimics of the Long-nosed Lycid.

Longicorn beetle Syllitus rectus.

FLIES

Bristle Fly Family Tachinidae.

Bee Fly Comptosia apicalis on a paper daisy.

Hoverfly Melangyna sp., Family Sryphidae on teatree Leptospermum multicaule.

 DRAGONFLIES

 

Wandering Ringtail female Austrolestes leda. It's not so much that we don't see
damselflies and dragonflies in the yard, but they rarely stop to be photographed!

 BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS

Australian Painted Lady Vanessa kershawi, also on the kunzea.

The Southern Old Lady Moth (I didn't name it) Dasypodia selenophora,
tends to lurk in dark corners but in the light it's really quite striking.

Magpie Moth Nyctemera amicus.

Greenish Grass-dart Ocybadistes walkeri also on a paper daisy.

WASPS AND ALLIES

Paper Wasps Family Vespidae, with their beautiful cellular nest on our balcony.
We've coexisted with them peacefully for years.

Bottlebrush Sawfly larva Pterygophorus cinctus - yes, feeding on our bottlebrush!

And here is one of its parents or aunts or uncles.... Perhaps. But it is the adult of the
Bottlebrush Sawfly larvae above - thanks Harvey! (I didn't recongnise it, I'm
hopeless at distinguishing sawflies from the related wasps, and I'm sure
I've seen more than I've realised.)

And here and below are a couple of species of unidentified (by me at
least) wasps, of which there are vast numbers of species, many
as yet unnamed.

SPIDERS

Golden Orb Spider Nephila sp., wrapping up some lunch just off our balcony.

Huntsman spider Family Sparassidae - this one was actually indoors rather than
in the garden.

And I'm not sure about this one at all, including what it was doing in the open on the
balcony rail.

And that, I'm sure, will surely be enough! But isn't it amazing how much wildlife we live with once we really start to look? We are very privileged indeed. Join me again once more this year for the traditional New Years Eve wrap-up of the year.

NEXT POSTING TUESDAY 31 DECEMBER

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