Wildlife
We love keeping an eye out for animals that visit our garden, and watching how our wild neighbours change as our garden changes. The insects have gone crazy since we planted all the green manure crops. Especially now things are going to flower. Our new residents include golden dragonflies, irredescent blue diamond weevils, a million yellow ladybeetles, hover flies, praying mantis, orchard butterflies...
Since June 2007 vistors and residents of our back yard include:
BIRDS
- King Parrots
- Firetails (Red brown finches)
- Little wattlebirds
- Eastern Spinebills
- Willy wag tails
- Grey fantails
- Silver eyes
- Yellow (little) Thornbill
- Black faced cuckoo-shrikes
- Rainbow lorikeets
- Laughing kookaburras
- Sulphur-crested cockatoos (let sunflowers go to seed and they will know about it!)
- Magpie-Lark
- Bulbuls
- Sparrows
- Indian minor birds
- Starlings
- Turtle doves
- Rock Doves
- Sea gulls
MAMMALS
- Fox (at least we think it was a fox – something tragically killed our neighbours gorgeous chickens in the daytime)
- Cats (neighbouring cats wander through the garden now and then)
- Humans (we especially like the ones that have gardening gloves)
REPTILES
- Water skinks (they moved in under our house and raised a family this spring!)
- Blue tongue lizards (on the rare occasion)
- Garden skinks (Have rapidly increased since we converted the grassy backyard into a luch food forest)
INSECTS AND SPIDERS
- Earthworms
- Lady beetles (yellow ones love the powdery mildrew on the zucchini)
- Diamond Weevil
- Bees (go crazy over sunflowers and perenial basil!)
- Wasps
- Cicardas
- House flies
- Hover flies
- Praying Mantis
- Cabbage whitebutterflies
- Orchard butterflies
- Blue Triangle butterflies
- Common blue grass butterflies
- Monarch butterflies
- Common Jezard butterflies
- Bogong moths
- Flower spiders
- Leaf curling spiders
- Jumping spiders (so cute!)
- Huntsmen spiders
- Garden spiders
- Daddy Long legs
- Red backs
- Black ants
- Christmas bettles
- Cockroaches
- Stick Insect
- Bronze orange bugs
- Garden snails
- Centipedes
Helpful sites for identifying fauna in your backyard are:
- http://www.birdsinbackyards.net.
- http://frogs.org.au
- http://www.faunanet.gov.au
- For butterflies - http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/sydbuts.html
It's funny how we often think of wildlife belonging in ‘protected areas’ and in ‘the bush,’ when our suburbs, gardens and cities are alive with wildlife!
Life in the suburbs has plenty of perks for those who love more open spaces, the huge range of different trees that provide nectar and fruit year round, and all the nooks and crannies in houses, buildings, bridges and drains that make cosy homes. But for others, life in the suburbs is a constant challenge, with sparse vegetation that stops and starts in different places, degraded water ways, busy roads and intimidation from more aggressive animals.
The way we design our gardens and cities has a huge impact upon who will thrive and who will become another name on the endangered species list. And as we change the landscape, some wildlife is affected positively and others negatively. My grandma used to have bandicoots in her backyard in Wollongong, and now they’re rare indeed. On the other hand, rainbow lorikeets, galahs and many of the large birds we see are relatively recent newcomers to the Illawarra.
There's plenty we can do to encourage wildlife in our cities. Some of the things we do are:
- Plant layers of trees, shrubs and ground covers, especially locally indigenous species and fruits trees.
- Grow some of our own food, and encourage sustainable agriculture, given that so much wildlife is having a hard time because of the way food is produced.
- Have well mulched gardens, and leave some old branches, pipes or old pots in quiet corners for habitat – the lizards will love you!
- Create frog ponds and bird baths in the garden
- Learn about local wildlife and share stories about wildlife you’ve seen
- Steer clear of chemical garden sprays – they aren’t good for anyone, wildlife included!
- Use public transport instead of the car
- Support creative thinking in the city - rooftop gardens, planter boxes in the window, bird boxes in the street trees, fruit trees as street trees, gardens in schools, nursing homes, parks...
- Leave dead trees, as they can have hollows which are valuable nesting places, or be useful viewing posts for birds
- Volunteer with a Bushcare group ( http://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au) or Conservation Volunteers Australia http://www.conservationvolunteers.com.au
Enjoy creating habitat for local wildlife and let us know about anything exciting that moves into your local area!