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The Corroboree
Halcyon Daze

Backyard ecology -post your pics!

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Let's see how you are helping nature in your own back yard!

How have your gardening efforts paid off by attracting all creatures great and small back to your little patch of paradise.

Birds, insects, frogs,lizards, spiders... I wanna see them all! Show us the fruits of your labor eco-minded Sabsters :)

I'll go first

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Edited by Halcyon Daze
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^U got a thing for Plectranthus? I do, but ma lady won't let me..

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I was just at the Melbourne zoo and they do half their landscaping with different types of Plectranthus, it's really cool. Plectranthus provide nectar for the tiny beneficial wasps (adults) that lay their eggs in aphids and caterpillars etc. Plecs are soooo good for a healthy chemical-free garden.

That green lynx spider above seems to have some sort of symbiosis going on with P. graveolens and the nice silver one has a limited distribution in the misty cliff edges around Mt Warning.

Cool plants indeed!

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Yep - there are sooo many cool Plectranthus spp. on the NC. Is the silver leaved one - P. argentatus??

I have in cultivation 5 or 6 diff species that have highly limited distributions. Just gotta convince the missus to let me plant them all out. She reckons they are "shabby looking plants". As I am sure you are aware Halcyon... that is the aim....

Will try to get some photos of our backyard Koalas, breeding Wonga Pigeons, Glossy Black Cockatoos, Buff-banded Rails, Ospreys and Square-tailed Kites and post them here..

Great thread..

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yes P. argentatus. Argentatus actually means "silvery". The trick is to prune them a couple times a year. They do go long and lanky like many other ornamental lamiacae (eg salvias) but the new foliage that comes out after a good prune looks fantastic. Plus you can use all those clippings to plant again.

I usually prune just before spring or if it's starting to look too lanky after the flower spikes have finished. I like the natural wild look but I gotta admit, they look damn spunky a couple weeks after a good prune :)

Edited by Halcyon Daze

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The ''spider'' in pic number 2 looks totally like a forest spirit from Princess Mononoke!

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Don't have any pictures today - but today there was some daredevil-ballerina fantails - courting each other, and hovering over the pool, doing loops. One even splashed the water. It was pretty cool to watch. I also hung out with the Tuis - copying their calls as best I could (I'm not sure what they make of it). :innocent_n:

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Tui calls are very ticky to imitate huh?

My partner and i tried to use a particular tui noise as a code ''word'' that we could use to snap ourselves out of shitty moods.. sadly i can't even make the noise, so when i hear a tui make it i use that as my prompt to check my state of mind and it's appropriate-ness.

All i could capture in my garden yesterday was a bee and a beebog, although i will keep trying and post a few pics when i have a couple to share.

Seeing creatures is easy but managing to take their picture is much harder!

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Seeing creatures is easy but managing to take their picture is much harder!

So true, My stupid camera has a one second delay after I click the button. I've missed soooo many awesome nature shots because of it.

I find myself just as interested in the tiny creatures as the big ones. You can't have the top end of the food chain without considering the bottom end first. Floral diversity is the obvious key to it all, plants are the primary producers on which the rest of the ecosystem in built. The more biodiversity, the more harmonious a garden will function, in my experience. I'm just waiting for some Wedge Tailed Eagles to move in and take care of my possum problem now. That may take a few more years lol.

Can't wait to see your shots! What things have you done to attract the wildlife? Planted certain plants, got rid of your cat etc? I'd love to hear the stories that go with the pix. :)

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Can't wait to see your shots! What things have you done to attract the wildlife? Planted certain plants, got rid of your cat etc? I'd love to hear the stories that go with the pix. :)

i couldn't just get rid of my cat!! :unsure: she is my one true love and my best friend!

i know she isn't kind to the birds but i have a fancy collar with lots of little bells that she wears, and the trees in my garden are so big the birds are always far out of her reach. I know they keep a close eye on her though, i hear their warning signals when she is sneaking about.

What i have done is let nature unfurl as it wishes (with a few exceptions)

i live in an area with lots of mature self-seeding trees, so throughout the property are literally hundreds of baby trees.

Manukas and kanuka, fuschias, wineberries, hawthorns, broadleafs, yews, totoras and comprosmas - just to name a few!

I also chose to allow all ferns and wild flowers to grow where they like, and the result of that (i believe anyway) is increased biodiversity, better water retention and a very busy garden.

I never use any chemical sprays, if i get bad infestations of bugs on my veges, i removed the infested plant/plants rather than spraying and damaging the delicate balance of life.

The insects are astounding, i love sitting in the garden in the afternoon and watching the flurry of activity around me. I have several species of native wasp and plenty native bees, which burrow into the terraces.

My garden philosophy is that everything is there for a reason, 90% of the baby trees get to stay where they are, and weeds are removed only when they start to produce seed, and then i leave them to rot into the ground where they once grew

the only time i will dig up a tree or shrub is;

  • if it has entered my vege patch,
  • if it is in the center of a path or walkway, or somewhere where it will not be able to reach full maturity,
  • or if it is becoming too weedy, ie more than 10 of this tree/shrub within a square metre, then i remove at least half of them

in which case it/they will be potted up and passed onto friends or family to plant in their garden.

I recently got a nice little bird feeder, i'm not sure if they have noticed it yet, but they are certainly visiting the garden, i think the huge norfolk pine is a bit of a luxury bird hang-out.

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i dont get that many cool animals in may back yard, but i liked this one enough to take a pic.

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how did they squash that possum like that against the trunk - must have had a telescopic pole or something, ....?

also kinda looks like a tree face with no eyes and two mouths

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I got lucky again this morning. I was taking pics of a blue ginger flower when along comes this HUGE native Bee, right in front of the lens. Turns out it's called a Teddy-Bear bee.

He posed for a couple quick shots and then got really pissed off with me moving in on his territory. He seemed to really like these flowers a lot, they are not native but we do have closely related native plants such as Pollia macrophylla and Murdannia graminea, so I guess they are playing a positive role.

It's certainly the first time I've ever seen one of these Teddy-Bear bees in our garden, so I'm super chuffed about it :)


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Awww! :)

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^^ Looks like it could be Limnodynastes tasmaniensis Spotted Grass Frog. To be certain would need more detailed photos.

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I second a Spotted Marsh Frog^ . .....ahe will be having a break if he leaps onto a spine, lol.

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i got reasonable big trees in my garden, and they attract a lot of birds.

pic shows a pheasant bird, hideing underneath a ephedra major, this bird always runs from hiding place to hiding place, funny to watch.

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nice thread! :wub:

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^^Cool bird PH :wink: ,

Pheasant Coucal (Centropus phasianinus) in his breeding plumage!

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snake in my custard apple tree , wallaby in front yard, kingy in ths trees

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Damn, no snake in my custard apple tree. I'M JEALOUS!

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do castards grow well in tassie?? c how its sitting on that large yummy fruit hahaah

old pic but love it. my froggie family they nest in tha black wattle tree every year :wink:

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snake in my custard apple tree , wallaby in front yard, kingy in ths trees

Looks very similar to my pet Jungle Python

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