Garden Visitors

[Daryl]

We get a fair amount of wildlife in the garden here, including Wallabies And Kangaroos, plus many other native animals, birds and reptiles.

This little Wallaby was happily munching on the Singapore Daisy this afternoon. Even though wet from the rain, his fur is much darker than that of the usual wallabies we get around here.

Daryl

[Dypsisdean]

We get a fair amount of wildlife in the garden here, including Wallabies And Kangaroos, plus many other native animals, birds and reptiles.

This little Wallaby was happily munching on the Singapore Daisy this afternoon. Even though wet from the rain, his fur is much darker than that of the usual wallabies we get around here.

Daryl

Are they related to Walaroo?

[Daryl]

Believe it or not Dean, Wallaroos are very similar, but closer to a Kangaroo in appearance. They are not usually so 'coastal' but could possibly inhabit the area. This is just the common local Wallaby, but with a bit more 'colour'. I am suspecting it is one that has been visiting my garden since very small, the rusty belly being very distinctive when he was still just 'out of the pouch'. This little guy/girl is about 1 metre tall as sitting.

Daryl

[paulgila]

no,he means "Wal"-aroo.get it?

[Daryl]

Could be! At least he's not called 'Wombat' That is a frequently used term in these parts...

Daryl

[paulgila]

then it would be "Wal-bat."

[Daryl]

Here's a couple of bird photos from the garden...

Willy Wagtail

Rainbow Lorikeet perched up at about 100ft

PeeWee

Kookaburra

Aussie Magpie

[Daryl]

There seem to be a lot of Black and White birds here lately...

Wagtail...

Pied Butcher bird eating the cat's breakfast

Pale Headed Rosella

[Daryl]

A few more birds from today...

Spangled Drongo

Silvereye

Golden Whistler

Pied butcher Bird

[Jeff in St Pete]

Nice Daryl. I love to see wildlife in the garden!

[Kim]

Excellent photos, Daryl. Birds can be so difficult to photograph, always moving and often backlit or obscured by foliage. Quite a varied group of visitors.

[amazondk]

Great pictures Daryl.

[Walter John]

Great shots Daz, more would be good. I was down Stanthorpe last week, saw heaps of black cockatoos, crimson rosellas and a couple of wedge tails, love the aussie bird life we have.

[Ntheastpalms]

Looking good Daryl, I love birds in the garden

I did'nt realise that the Pale headed rosella's came that close to the coast. I would love to have them in my garden.

I get the Eastern rosella here all the time, the pair even raised 4 young last spring, I occasionally get crimson rosella in winter here as well.

[Daryl]

Here's a few more from the garden...

Fig Bird

Scrub Turkey

Female Spangled Drongo

Rainbow Lorikeet at Newcal's place

Quack

[Daryl]

Striated Pardalote...this little fella was hard to catch...a bundle of nervous energy...

Daryl

[Daryl]

Here's a couple of larger animals this morning...

Daryl

[edric]

Cool shots Daryl, Ed

[Stevetoad]

You live in a zoo or what? I get excited when I get a fox in my back yard and you have Roos bouncing around. I'm jealous.

[Daryl]

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...

Brown Pidgeon?

[Daryl]

A couple of non-birds...

Water Dragon hiding on a tree trunk

]

[Daryl]

A Dwarf Tree Frog

[Dave-Vero]

This being North America, the yard gets eastern gray squirrels (the ones that overran England), marsh rabbits, black racer snakes, legless glass lizards, opossums, moles (they seem to like the bromeliad bed), Cuban tree frogs, Carolina and Cuban anole lizards, and the usual birds--cardinals, blue jays, fish crows, with occasional white ibis. The plastic flamingos don't count. The big iguanas plaguing south Florida haven't reached here yet.

Wallabies would be neat.

[Daryl]

Dave, are the White Ibis a pest there? The ones here go through the garbage and are dirty scavengers. They smell pretty bad too!

Daryl

[aussiearoids]

This Goanna lived in the nursery at Mission BEACH , I have seen one in my back yard.

[palmmermaid]

Daryl,

The white ibis aren't pests as far as I am concerned. They fly around in small flocks and eat bugs in the grass. We are starting to get more glossy ibis here in Palm Beach County - a little south of Dave. I think the ibis are adapting to the ever-changing landscape we have created.

[Daryl]

Daryl,

The white ibis aren't pests as far as I am concerned. They fly around in small flocks and eat bugs in the grass. We are starting to get more glossy ibis here in Palm Beach County - a little south of Dave. I think the ibis are adapting to the ever-changing landscape we have created.

Hi Kitty, I'm thinking our White Ibis is a different species to your White Ibis... the old 'common name' issue!

Here is a little birdy that was perched high up in my Blue Quandong yesterday...a Black Faced Monarch...

Speaking of birds, I heard this interesting bird on my recent rainforest walk with Charles from Portugal... I never saw it, but it had an interesting call. Here is a poor quality video...you may have to turn up the sound.

Daryl

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

Daryl,

When I was Down Under, I noticed your Ibis were white with black heads. They were very aggressive, sort of like our seagulls at the beach, but I guess yours go inland too. Our Ibis are brown as juveniles then turn all white. They are not aggressive at all and like Kitty says, they flock in small numbers eating bugs and grubs from your lawn.

One time, while giving a tour in the Arboretum, I came upon a flock of Ibis poking their long beaks into the grass, looking for something to eat. One Ibis was separated from the others and one of the tourists commented that the flock must have ostracized him. I wisely explained that ostriches are a completely different type of bird.

[Daryl]

But, did he have his head in the sand???

[Daryl]

Birds love power lines!

[Pedro 65]

Daryl, your recorded bird call is the Green Catbird

[Daryl]

Thanks Pete, I thought it might have been one...it certainly sounded like a cat!

Daryl

[kahili]

Daryl, I just played your video of the catbird and the dogs came running! The volume wasn't even turned up that high, and they were even a few rooms away . Maybe because they had never heard one before....

[amazondk]

We have some sort of interesting wildlife around here.

This guy was in town, but not at my place.

[Walter John]

Daryl,

When I was Down Under, I noticed your Ibis were white with black heads. They were very aggressive, sort of like our seagulls at the beach, but I guess yours go inland too. Our Ibis are brown as juveniles then turn all white. They are not aggressive at all and like Kitty says, they flock in small numbers eating bugs and grubs from your lawn.

One time, while giving a tour in the Arboretum, I came upon a flock of Ibis poking their long beaks into the grass, looking for something to eat. One Ibis was separated from the others and one of the tourists commented that the flock must have ostracized him. I wisely explained that ostriches are a completely different type of bird.

Hi Jerry, here's a link to this aussie white ibis to clarify. I actually thought it was a species that flew in from Asia in the 70s/80s or hitched a ride with some boaties because I never saw or heard of them till I was about 30 years old. Apparently it's native though and edged eastward to the populated coastal areas of Australia due to long extended inland droughts.

Australian White Ibis

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

This morning, on the pool deck, I found evidence of a night time visitor. It was a little gruesome so I did not take a picture of it. All sorts of frogs and toads swim in my pool and last night we had several inches of rain so it was like frog heaven in my back yard. One of the visitors was the Cane Toad, Buffo marinus. Most know that this toad has poison glands on the back of its head/neck, and most animals avoid it for this reason. This morning I found a cane toad, minus all its four legs lying on its back in a tiny pool of blood. Apparently, whatever predator did it has leaned to eat all the legs but leave the body alone.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

In Florida, our Ibis look like this with white heads and orange beaks and legs.

[Walter John]

This morning, on the pool deck, I found evidence of a night time visitor. It was a little gruesome so I did not take a picture of it. All sorts of frogs and toads swim in my pool and last night we had several inches of rain so it was like frog heaven in my back yard. One of the visitors was the Cane Toad, Buffo marinus. Most know that this toad has poison glands on the back of its head/neck, and most animals avoid it for this reason. This morning I found a cane toad, minus all its four legs lying on its back in a tiny pool of blood. Apparently, whatever predator did it has leaned to eat all the legs but leave the body alone.

Interesting. I wish I had that predator here (within reason), the toads are becoming plentiful again, annoying buggers. , one of the worst introduced animals here for sure.

[Daryl]

The native crows in these parts have figured out how to eat Cane Toads. I find a lot of them in my yard , dead on their backs with their guts eaten out. The word has got out how to handle them!

The only good thing is that they keep the deadly snake population low.

Daryl

[amazondk]

That is interesting about cane toad predators. Although the toads are native here I do not see many of them. I suppose that there are natural predators that keep their populations down here. Since the rains have now kicked in the frogs have started to sing again.

dk