Tragedies Happening in the Garden

Last Sunday was a beautiful spring day and I was feeding all the pot plants....I do wonder at myself, for we have a two acre wild garden and still I like to have plants in pots cheering up the verandahs.....As I came round the corner, there was a fledgling Willie Wagtail on the grass, all covered in ants yet still breathing. So I picked it up and brushed off all the ants as best I could and brought it inside thinking I might be able to save it. Sadly its little eyes had already been devoured by the ants so the kindest thing to do was end its little life. I gave it a Christian burial which Brian thought quite silly as he of course is an atheist.....

Interestingly too, was the fact that the fledgling's siblings were sitting on the  bowl on the south side of the house, yet I found it on the north side of the house, how did it get there? Their nest is in the Holm oak this year which is not far from the bowl.....Now the parents are already building a new nest in the vines on the patio, right by the door we use each day while they are still feeding the two off springs.
It was a great surprise too, to find the Bronze wing pigeon has started a nest on the chicken wire- overhang above the chooks' little mansion. It flies off the moment I enter their yard to feed and water them but at least the eggs ought to be safe there,  as pigeons they are noted for their sloppy nests of only a few sticks and eggs drop off quite readily.

As it was such a beautiful day last Sunday we had our ritual dry sherry before lunch on the patio and there we saw this rather large grass hopper.Or is it a locust? how does one tell...
It did keep a wary eye on me while I was trying to get close enough to photograph it.
Seeing we have had a reasonable season on the Fleurieu peninsula , that could well be the next disaster...a locust plague... it doesn't bear thinking about....

This season too, the Granny Smith apple tree is absolutely covered in blossom and the exciting thing is there are lots of bees around again so here is hoping for a good crop. We will net the tree soon as last year we let it go too long and the parrots had nipped off all the little apples before we thought to net it.
They are such destructive birds the parrot as well as the cockatoo families and while we know they are natures pruners we'd like them to stay with their native fruits....Funnily enough they have not bothered the quandong tree. I have been harvesting them and will make a plum and quandong sauce with them when the plums are ready.

The yellow irises are the first of that family to flower and they put on a very cheerful display.
Now the purple, red and yellow with white falls are joining in
And so it goes, each cycle repeating itself and having their time in the spotlight....
The heron has been very attentive to our gold fish, it must have a nestling to be so unafraid of our presence, it stands its ground till we make a sudden move...out of twelve gold fish I can now only see six....oh well, the do breed a bit like pigeons, always at it......