14 replies to this topic

[dave]

just a stretch of my legs this morning and what is around, certainly not professional, just a point and shoot series, the little sleepys are of a batch of three that were born in our yard this year, the parents frequent our house yard and breed here every year, we also have two pair of bearded dragons that produce an average of five young each every year here as well, our magpies (which also breed here) were not around for their usual feed so I cant include them, the birds wouldn't sit still for me but anyway this is whats in our yard this morning! shots taken on macro on auto settings with a Fuji s9500 SLR



the little shinglebacks are around 4 inches long now, growing like a dogs tongue in a butchery!

the fernery is attached to the side of our house, I built it around five years ago, it measures 15 metres by 5 metres

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Cascade]

Dave,
Nice pics to brighten up a dull day, especially like the criters.
All I have here where I live in the reptile stakes are the occasional snake that wanders through the property in search of a mate, the odd blue tongue lizard and the general proliferation of metallic skinks. I would dearly love to be able to have some resident frill necked lizards to photograph.

Some interesting leaves and flowers. Are they natives?

Thats one scary looking spider sculpture on top of that barrel. Wouldn't want to meet its mate on a dark night.

Finally, you should be totaly honoured that you have been adopted by your Magpie friends and that theyalso breed close by. It has been discovered through studies that they actually have an inbuilt inherited memory from previous generations which is added to by later generations as well as an individual long term memory, so don't upset them. One classic example, is that they have an absolute dislike for small boys that throw stones, as small boys often do, and will attack them supposedly unprovoked. They are also known to have a total mistrust of the human form. It is also believed they have the most complex of all bird songs.

[dave]

thanks mate, the lizards are pretty much permanent residents, we have a large reserve over the road from us but our fernery brings them in for water and succulent snails and slugs, the resident maggies are I'm afraid my fault, they came in under our back veranda about 5 years ago, they could hardly stand and barely fly, severe drought and nothing to eat or drink so they were in a pretty bad way, I thought the pair would die, it took me about 2 weeks to get close enough to them to feed them and make sure they were right for water, it took me six months to get them back up and right again, to the stage where they could begin to forage for themselves

we always have a big bowl of good clean water for the dogs, foxy cross and a shitzu/maltese, we have here, eventually they "adapted" us and sat on our shoulders during barbeque's and gatherings, then they went away one spring and I didn't see them for a while, one day I went outside, after hearing a hell of a din to find five maggies out on the rear lawn, the ones I had fed had bred and brought the little ones in to show us, mum and dad parading the youngsters so proudly, since then we feed them occasionally but prefer them to hunt for themselves only helping them out when the need arises,

they have lived and bred here ever since never swooping us or annoying us in any way possible, just the opposite, they greet us every morning with their caroling chorus as if to say howdy, we have skinks of all descriptions here as well and it is not uncommon to go to the fernery and discover half a dozen little ones of about a half inch long scurrying about, the bearded dragons brighten my day as I see them as special, the parents dig around the leaf litter and deposit the eggs then to see the cocky little dragons emerge is simply a gift from the almighty herself, they are usually around 2 - 3 inches long at birth, and absolutely adorable,

we quite often get snakes come in here for water, those I am not too pleased about, but they come have a drink then waddle back out to the park or I show them the way with a broom, I have set up our yard to encourage the wildlife, I prefer to be a part of it rather than fight it, one of my favorite pastimes is to have a cuppa out under our grotto and watch the birds and butterflies and insects going about there business, I'm a bit of a softy, I get out early so I can pick up the bees that have been chilled at night, I warm them up and release them, I also release the butterflies from spiders webs, oh well enough of my dribble,




I'm sorry I didn't notice you had asked about the spider, a bit of a story surrounding that one, my wife seen him, well one of his friends anyway! down at the Yorke peninsula field days, only the one she seen was assembled and painted, the one that was sold to us was in pieces and unpainted, straight off the cad assisted plasma cutting bench, but she simply had to have one regardless, we gave the man $250 (he wanted $450 which I thought was a bit much) and I got a bag of scrap iron and some instructions, I lugged this 25 kilo bag of scrap a mile and a half to exit the field day and back to the car, my back has yet to recover, it took me a full day of welding to get it together and another day of painting the thing, but we get a lot of comments on it and could have sold a dozen of them, I have yet to see another!

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Cascade]

An enjoyable read Dave, I'm a bit of a softie as well can't bear to see anything suffer although I'm not quite at your level with the butterfly release (spiders need to eat as well) and the bee's seem to manage to tuck themselves in before the day is out.

It's nice to see all the baby skinks as they bake in the sun along with the adults which unfortunatly are rather carniverous, but I guess it keeps the population down under Mother Nature's rules.

As I said before, consider yourself special with the Maggies, and I believe they are providing you with your just reward for the care you provided. To actualy have them return with their young must have been an awsome feeling. We have a couple of pairs hanging around the property reasonably close to the house and it seems to me, its the same collective group that returns each year, but as yet we ain't fully trusted. But we do have a Forest Raven family that visits every day, throughout the day, I often pick up road kill for them and dump it in the paddock even though I know they are fully capable of getting their own.

I agree with you on the spider, there no way I would have paid $450.00 but I think you got a great jigsaw for the $250.00. Never seen anything like it at Agfest here in Tassie, even though we get a considerable number of mainland exhibitors, will have to keep a special eye out, in a couple of weeks time.

[dave]

ah carnivorous that would explain a very quick decline in numbers and then an explosion followed by a downturn in little lizard numbers, I thought they just went to pastures greener

I dont release the cabbage moths but I do release our butterfly's, most of the spiders are either red backs (kill on sight) or money spiders, we have some orb weavers but the white eyed finches take them out of their webs so they are rare

we have lived here for twenty five years, raised a family and now enjoying life and travelling a lot more, it has taken us that long to encourage nature in to our yard, when we first bought the place it was a desert where nothing grew or visited, we made a home for ourselves and a little piece of paradise, now I am very protective of our little fauna,

when we get the next lot of youngsters I'll take a happy snap for you! the little bearded dragons are extra special!

[dave]

a couple of new flowers that "appeared" overnight, I missed the dew unfortunately, I got waylaid, once again untouched and just simply a "happy snap"

[Mystic]

An incredibly dynamic garden you have there Dave, thanks for sharing the great shots. Seems like a very nice place to relax and watch the critters do their thing. Almost envy you.

[dave]

it is I that envies you, you dwell in paradise, surrounded by rain-forest with every fern imaginable, such things full of beauty that even on my wildest days I could not conjure up, when I visit your island paradise I am enthralled at every turn, we have lived here for twenty five years and it has been a struggle every year to keep what we have alive and to try to expand, I would assume that in your area that to leave a broom out in the open would be to find a tree the next day

we intend to visit you state within two years to soak up the natural wonder that you possess, uluru and the Alice this time, the blue mountains within six months and then Tassie here we come with the great ocean road thrown in as a bonus

we like our little position but would like more rain! drought and water restrictions for the last ten years has been a bit harsh on the plants

[Shane V]

You have definitely made yourself a little oasis there Dave. Very nice flowers and plants you have growing. Thanks for sharing your part of the world with us

[bandi]

Great stuff Dave. Thats a fantastic looking garden. All we have at the moment are palm trees, which I would swap in a second for something else if I had the time and resources. Until then, I'll have to enjoy the walks through your garden!

[dave]

glad you all enjoyed it, I will take some more at a later date as "things change", we now have a pair of " Willy wagtails" looking to nest in one of our shrubs or maybe on our clothesline, they haven't made up their mind yet but they are extremely wary and camera shy, that would make my day if they honored me with littleys, I was sitting out in the grotto having a cuppa when a goshawk came racing through at an estimated speed of 60 k's and took a dove out of the tree above me, it then dragged it to the ground about 20 feet in front of me and tore the dove apart and ate it, just wish I had the camera then,



noisy, cocky little bugger

[Mystic]

Great shot Dave, hope they do decide to nest and would love to see the babies if they do. Used to love these little birds when I was on the mainland.

That goshawk would have definitely been an interesting series of photo's. Haven't you learned yet that you ALWAYS take your camera when going outside, murphy's law of photography states that at any time that your camera is not with you there will definitely be something worth capturing.

[dave]

I would be chuffed to have them nest in my yard and if they do I will post the piccys! and you are right about carrying the camera at all times a lot of photo op's have been missed!, I love the new multiple photo uploader by the way. well done once again!

[Cascade]

Nice pic Dave.... and yep, Mystic is right, I think camera's should have their own ubilical cord and come attached at birth.

[Shane V]

Don't tell a mother in labour that one Cascade...

Great shot and story Dave. Keep em coming mate