Category: Wildlife Sanctuary at Home

There have been many native creatures that have either visited our garden from time to time or have set up a home for themselves. These include: many species of birds, including the shy silvereyes, friar birds, three species of rosellas (Crimson rosellas, Eastern rosellas and King Parrots), galahs, cockatoos (unfortunately), magpies (some of which have been tame enough to eat out of our hands – and even venture inside the house on occasions); and a pair of tawny frogmouths that settled in a Casuarina just outside our dining room window for several weeks; various lizards, including skinks and gekkos and a magnificent bluetongue that divides its time between our garden and some of our neighbours’ gardens; possums (and how I wish the parsley would eat them for a change); and our most treasured visits from an echidna. Here are photos of some of them:

Tawny Frogmouths

There was a pair of them that suddenly appeared one morning right outside our dining room window, and for many weeks they spent their days trying so very hard to look like a part of our Casuarina. It wasn’t possible to capture them in the same photo, unfortunately. To our annoyance (and theirs) they were continually harassed by an unruly gang of recalcitrant Currawongs. They were smart enough and fierce enough to hold their own, so the Currawongs weren’t able to attack them. But in the end I think they grew weary of defending themselves, and losing those precious daylight sleeping hours, so they departed.

Echidna

This very welcome visitor was first seen crossing the road outside our place a few years ago, and many neighbours came out to watch it and make sure it got to the other side safely. It then chose to wander down our driveway, then ventured inside the gate into our fernery to settle down under one of our tree ferns. After exploring its surrounds for a while it dug itself a hole under a pot-plant frame and snuggled down for the night. It stayed a few days then disappeared. After one of our neighbours contacted CALMS, she was told it was ‘well known’ that there was a family of echidnas in our suburb, and we needn’t worry about their safety. We’ve seen another in our back yard recently – it too, graced us with its presence for a short while then wandered off. No apologies for showing all of these photos. They are gorgeous.

Possum

As is their way, the possums usually come at night. This one decided to look down at us in our courtyard from the top of our brush fence. At the time, we were delighted to see it. But now there are too many that use our broadband cable as their very own ‘information superhighway’ at night, leaving little ‘data bits’ all in a row underneath. My husband wasn’t very impressed when we lost our internet connection at night, randomly, after they chewed through it. Fortunately it was repaired without charge.