Odds and Sods - Wildlife

One thing we don't have a lot of in our yard is wildlife.  Funny that, as we now live in suburbia.  We just have to look over the road to see a mob of roos, which is nice.

We mainly see the run of the mill birds - magpies, peewees, sparrows, English blackbirds (what a mess they make in the garden) and those horrid Indian minors. Surprisingly, no parrots.

However, we do have a lovely family of blue wrens.  Mum and Dad had a nest up behind our shed in the shrubbery in the spring and hatched three babies.  They have made a second nest in the last month and hatched a further three babies.  They give us a wake up call with their sweet chirping each morning.  It is so lovely to see them all playing under the sprinkler.  I've been trying for ages and ages to take a photo of them, but they will not pose for me, flitting here and there all the time.  The other night they were all out and about and we got a couple of photos.  Then one of them hopped up onto Mick's NBN tower and must have discovered bugs underneath the insulators. I couldn't believe seeing five of them all lined up in row....and they posed for me.

One morning in the spring, while we were eating breakfast on our back verandah Mick noticed a bird.  It was up the back of the yard, and having the sun behind it we had trouble working out what it was.  No, it wasn't a blackbird, or a pigeon.  I ventured closer and thought the feathers looked like those of a quail, but it wasn't a quail.  Finally Mick got a photo of it and we got out the bird book.  It is actually a "Buff  Banded Rail".  Never heard of it!  They are a wetland bird and are common up the east side of Australia.  They are known to hide in the scrub. 

It must have ventured into our area as a result of all the wet weather we had.  It stayed around for a couple of days and then disappeared.

More recently we have seen lots of stick insects.  Praying mantises are out and about.  Big ones and little ones.

There was even one at the post office collecting its mail.

While watering on the weekend I was surprised by this tiny little fellow hopping out of the garden.  He is tiny, only about the size of a 5 cent piece.  Fortunately, I had my camera in my pocket, so a quick snap and then he hopped back into the herbs.