Springing!

Again, I've been lax with my poor untended blog. I've been very busy of late, with studies, research and now, being president of Macquarie University Biological Society (MUBS). We've launched a new website and newsletter, mRNA. If you're interested in biology, I hope you'll go and take a look! As well as these innovations, we're planning monthly lunchtime biology talks and a competition and exhibition of biology photos taken by students and staff in the faculty. I'm now also on the Macquarie University Biology Museum Advisory Group, looking at upgrading the museum. Exciting times ahead!

As the weather is warming up, and we're finally having some good rain, the garden is taking off. Finally, many of the plants that I put in when we moved here are tall enough to avoid the chomping teeth of the wallabies. Because I've been mulching and watering so much, it seems that the invertebrate life in the soil has become utterly irresistible to the Brush Turkeys and Superb Lyrebirds, who every day kindly "aerate" the soil. We're constantly having to shovel mulch off the paths and back onto the garden beds.

Some recent garden photos:



A Superb Lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae. It's hard to get a good shot of these, as they're so timid. This one appears to be a juvenile male, with its elaborate tail plumage beginning to develop. There's been a lot of lyrebird courtship going on, with males pursuing females through the garden and wooing with their extraordinary repertoire. I completely forgive them for the damage they do to the garden. Their presence is, well, superb!




In addition to our old pond, we've added another frog habitat: a large, sealed terracotta pot. I've planted some emergent monocots in it, hoping to attract another species of frog, the Eastern Dwarf Green Tree Frog, Littoria fallax. As these plants grow, they'll conceal the plastic pots, and I've planted some densely growing plants around it, to provide protection. The pump is solar powered, with a solar panel on the roof  in one of the few spots at our place that gets regular sunlight.



This is a new visitor to our garden, a Red Bellied Black Snake, Pseudechis porphyriacus. It's around 1.5 metres in length. Although venomous, it's a cautious species and so I'm not too concerned about its presence. The frogs might be though!

My end of year exams will be over in around a month, and I hope to spend lots of time in the garden and blogging, so I'll see you then!

Superb Lyrebird

As I've previously mentioned, some Superb Lyrebirds, Menura novaehollandiae frequent our garden. They're remarkably beautiful birds, their common name reflecting the the male's tale, which resembles an ornate musical lyre. Even more extraordinary than the plumage, however, is their famous song. Or songs....

Image: John Gould,
The birds of Australia 1840-48

This morning, we were delighted to hear one of the males performing his repertoire. It included the calls of an Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius), an Eastern Whipbird (Psopodes olivaceus), an Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen), a car alarm, the beep of an electronic car-key, and the frogs in the creek behind our house, Crinia signifera.

The Superb Lyrebird is quite large, the male being up to 100cm in length, including tale. They fossick in the leaf litter of moist forests in South-Eastern Australia, eating insects, worms and spiders. They roost in trees at night.

Their mimicry is, of course, all about getting girls. The male builds a mound to act as a stage where he throws his tale over his head, shakes it, and performs for half an hour or more. The complexity of his repertoire is directly proportional to his mating success.

The accuracy of their mimicry has to be heard to be believed, so here is a video of one being interviewed by David Attenborough.

Burgeoning!

Hi everyone!

Busy times. I've been working hard on the garden. The beds near the front verandah were full of nasty exotic things, and they're gone now. In their place I've put in lots of new things, a goodly array of small trees, shrubs, monocots and ground covers.



In this bed is an established Ceratopetalum gummiferum, a New South Wales Christmas Bush, which has magnificent red sepals in summer. Against the lattice, I've planted Pandorea pandorana (Wonga Wonga vine). In front of those is an Acacia terminalis and a Grevillea olivacea x preissii which I grew at TAFE as one of my propagation assignments, and there are a couple of Goodenia ovata (with yellow flowers), to match the Acacia. I've planted a few Lomandra longifolia and Lomandra fluviatilis here and there, and in the foreground is a Zieria prostrata. Throughout, I've sown Dichondra repens seed as a ground cover.




This bed is very floral. I've planted as centrepieces, an Acacia fimbriata, a hybrid Leptospermum and a Corymbia ficifllia x ptychocarpa--the latter two have deep pink flowers. As smaller shrubs, I've planted Lomatia silaifolia, Crowea saligna and Melaleuca thymifolia. For ground covers, I've put in Brachyscome formosa, Brachyscome angustifolia, Brachyscome multifida, Wahlenbergia stricta, Dampiera diversifolia, Chrysocephalum apiculatum which will hopefully create a carpet of pink, blue and yellow. To create textural contrast, I added a few Patersonia sericea.

Once these become established, spring will bring a mass of colour! In my not too modest opinion.

Speaking of a lack of modesty, last week I was presented with the Award for Outstanding Graduate for my TAFE horticulture course last year! I was chuffed, especially when I discovered it entailed a book voucher from the wonderful bookshop Floreligium. Today the books I ordered arrived: the latest edition of "Frogs and Reptiles of the Sydney Region" by Ken Griffiths, and "Mycelium Running: how mushrooms can help save the world". Gorgeous.

My science degree begins in July. The course I'm starting with is Foundations for Resource and Environmental Management. I'm lowering myself back into tertiary education gently, so I'm starting with one course only.

The backyard vegie patch is coming on apace. Photos soon. I've planted peas, silver beet, rocket and cabbage, as well as nasturtiums and marigolds as companion plants, and I've mulched and set up an irrigation system and a fence to keep out the wallabies. They're looking good so far: no pests.

But alas, the wallabies got to my lemon tree. Now it has no leaves and no fruit. Still, they were here first so I can't complain. I've planted a Feijoa tree, but I'm not letting any damned marsupial near it. It's thoroughly protected by a plastic guard.

And I've started work on the pond. This really excites me! My plan is to put a waterfallish thing above a crack between two sandstone platforms. The water will flow down to pond number 1, and from there into a larger pond.

Update: I've started a new section on my Growing Passion website, devoted to the construction of the pond. Please take a look. I'll update it frequently, as the work gets done.

The first stage is removing huge tracts of the bloody agapanthus some nong planted. The more established plants have extensive root systems, and the only way to remove them is with brute force and lots of sweat. Still, it's satisfying work. And it's nice to have help. Here's Martien, hard at it. What a fine lad.




Agapanthus massacres are quite cathartic. During one I found a lone Epacris longiflora. It is looking rather sad, but now it's lost its competitors for space, light, nutrients and water, maybe it will be happier.

I also must tell you about the website of my friends, Stewart and Susie, on their swimming-pool-turned-into-pond: Pool to Pond. Stunning, huh? They're an inspiration. If you've a pool you don't want any more, forget about the expense of filling it in. This is the environmentally wonderful solution. Wouldn't you just love these plants and animals in your backyard?

Meanwhile, I'm continuing my volunteer work at the Herbarium's Plant Pathology Lab. Loving it to pieces. I'm even getting to do DNA extractions alone and without the aid of a net!

The closing date for applications for the Herbarium AVH position has ended. I've finished my application and mailed it off. It felt like a smallish novella. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Check out this gorgeous diamond python resident in the neighbours' roof! It vanished, apparently, during the bushfires, and rats invaded the roof. Now it's back and the rats are gone. I know which I'd prefer.




The other day, I saw a male Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) in the garden, right next to the house. Wish I could have got a pic, but it ran away too quickly, alas. Damn but I love the wildlife here....

Oh, and we've got a new puppy--a border collie--Trillian, as a companion for Miepje. Isn't she beautiful? But naughty. Very, very naughty. Like Miepje, we got her from the RSPCA. Unlike Miepje, she's not in the least traumatised by her early experiences. She's ridiculously confident about the world. Smart as a button.