More Birds and Bits

This is the view of the garden outside my back door. It's not the greatest photo I'll admit but all these flowers self seed bountifully so they come up every Spring and give me great joy. While you can only see red poppies, calendulas and nasturtiums also nestled in among them are the tiny flowers of heartsease and alyssum.

In other news the New Holland honeyeater nesting in a fern in a hanging basket at the side of the house is not very good at not revealing itself. We’re avoiding using that path as much as possible but the worm farm is there so occasionally I have take them food. Every time I do - and bear in mind I’m walking as far away as I can on the far side of the path and carefully not looking in the direction of the nest - the honeyeater bursts off the nest in a flapping panic, then lands on a nearby twig where it stays staring at me and looking very uneasy.

The honeyeaters are not the only ones nesting among the ferns. There’s also a laughing dove in another hanging basket. She is much more sensible and although clearly nervous she stays firmly put, hunkering down and trying to pretend she’s not there. Move along, human. There’s nothing to see here, she seems to be thinking.

The Australian ravens are also extremely busy. They have one very loud and demanding youngster and keeping its gaping beak occupied is persuading them to be quite bold. We have a large population of lizards and frogs living in our yard and so we don’t encourage ravens or kookaburras for that matter. I’ve been finding bones - some quite large - all over the garden. Not satisfied with turning the bird bath into a messy sludge by dipping stolen bread in it, the ravens raid rubbish bins and dump the bones here when they're finished with them. Since the baby is now as big as its parents I suspect it won’t be long before it is expected to find its own food and things will quieten down. I hope so because it's very raucous and its cries keep sending the neighbourhood dogs into a barking frenzy.