New Nest for the Tawney Frogmouth and more Visitors...

What a wonderful surprise this morning while I was hanging out the washing, to see that the Tawney Frogmouth was sitting on his nest in the tree next to the Lemon scented gumtree.
His previous nest had been in the Ashtree for at least three seasons, but sadly I noticed the branch it had been on, had fallen down on the roof of the little shed. So I had been wondering where his nest this spring might be and there he was....  The nest is pretty roughly made with mostly twigs but it does seem to be reasonably anchored between the smaller branches. It was blowing a gale today so it had a good trial to see if it was safe....

It was not easy to get a clear shot but I hope you can see it better once you click on the photo.
The one on the right here he has seen me  and so by holding his head up he is pretending to be part of the tree....I had asked his permission to take photos... but you never know these days what may get said later on when he may have had some bird telling him of privacy concerns.....
I have noted down the day so as to see how long he actually takes to hatch the eggs, I hope there are two, but that is not always the case.

 The other bird which has suddenly decided this may be a good place to live is the Raven with his blue eyes.....You can't tell them apart either, so is it a him or a she? who knows.... I also want to write a blog on the mating habits of the birds here on our patch, as there is some amazing courting behaviour among the feathered  fraternity....
Anyway, there are now two ravens and they are becoming quite brazen. The noise they make on our tin roof you would think some elephants are up there and this morning they were cawing on the patio as though they owned the place.

On the right is our resident Blue tongue lizard. It  generally hibernates in the wall of the Studio and comes out in Spring when the sun warms it up.Its scientific name is Tiliqua scinoides scinoides. It gives birth to live young so does not lay eggs. Apparently it can have as many as ten little ones, in which case our place should be overrun by them, yet I have only ever seen one half grown Blue tongue since we have lived here. They feed on both flowers, berries and beetles or anything in the insect world slower than they are...
In days gone by we used to have the Bearded Dragons here also, which were such a delight to have sitting in the top of rose bushes sunning themselves. Sadly the neighboring vineyards have killed most of them as they sit on top of posts and the mechanical harvesters they now use to strip the vines also stripped the Dragons and probably finished up giving the wine a certain extra protein flavour....

Koala and other Creatures in our Garden

A little while ago now, the Magpies were very disturbed and were making unusual calls. It was almost as though they were asking questions....so I hurried outside to see what was making them so anxious... and after a little while I saw this Koala in our tree. This is the very first time we have ever seen a Koala in our garden. So I promptly hurried back into the house to get my camera.... he looked most surprised when I started photographing him and he turned around to show me his best side.... such a handsome fellow he thought he was, and so he was....
He came all the way from Willunga where he had been seen on the golf course. This is about two kilometers from our place so he had walked quite a  long way......

In the right hand picture you see a long necked Turtle. It appeared one summer evening when we were sitting on the front verandah cooling off after a hot day. It was walking across the open part of our garden which is full of ox tongue thistles which are very prickly It did not like to be photographed and hid its head under its carapace. They are native to our area and live in the Willunga creek and move around quite a bit.
I don't really want one in the pond as they are rather dirty creatures and pollute a still water pond very quickly... so I was pleased he walked on after he realized he was no longer under investigation....

This afternoon, just now,how exciting to see a  Straw necked Ibis on our pond... click on the photo and see his ginormous feet.... the kitchen window is a great place to see and observe creatures which come in to have a drink, or a bath or both. Our Wattle birds and the little green honey eaters have this amazing capacity to dive off the Holm oak branch into the pond and fly out again, shaking their feathers when they are back in the tree. The other day a Willy Wagtail was watching this performance and he thought he could try this too... he tried, poor darling but didn't quite do it right, but he did sit on a rock and shook its feathers there....it does make you wonder if they learn from each other....