Lazybees …

Published on by FJB2 Comments

Today is the first day of spring and I’ve put my native bees on notice.

They’ve had a lazy winter.  Whilst their European relatives toiled daily, returning to their hives (wherever they are?) with loads of pollen, my bees snoozed, only venturing forth on warm days to clean out the poo and make a few half-hearted forays into the garden.

No more excuses.  The weather is warmer, I’ve seen them out and about, and there are plenty of flowers in the garden … so now it’s time for them to provide me with some honey.

You might recall that twelve months ago, being a bit impatient, I attempted to fool my bees into giving me some honey by removing the top of the hive and placing a small container over the access hole .  My bees promptly sealed it up and went back to the business of collecting pollen.

This time I’ve gone professional and ordered a proper Honey Super kit from Sydney Native Stingless Bees.  The helpful Melissa sent me several honey pots, a honey super and two straps to secure the hive.

Adding the honey pot
Bees exploring the honey pot
Super and straps in place
Roof in place
Roof back in place – messy little devils aren’t they!

I’ll have to wait 6-8 weeks before peeking, but as my Bee Beds are about to burst into flower, I have high hopes that by the beginning of November I’ll have a little native bee honey to drizzle on my morning yoghurt.

Bee Beds ready to flower
Bee Beds ready to flower

Rosella bath time …

Published on by FJB4 Comments

Midway through a phone conversation with my mother nearly two thousand kilometres away in Adelaide I was “forced” to put her on hold, whilst I dived for my camera.

I had just seen something quite interesting in the garden …

Crimson Rosellas from my balcony
Rosella bath time

A family of Crimson Rosellas was enthusiastically bathing in my pond. Now, crimson and royal blue are not normally colours anyone would wear (except perhaps on a football vest) but somehow, when nature puts them together it looks wonderful.

Parading around the pond

They are not an uncommon bird on the East Coast of Australia, but this is the first time that I’ve noticed them in my garden, so I was quite excited. They hung around just long enough for me to finish my call to Mum and record a short video.

Keep an eye out for the smallest Rosella bravely performing a couple of spurts of freestyle across the pond!

Visiting Bat Island …

Published on by FJB4 Comments

In the whole twelve years I have lived here, I have never been to Bellingen Island. It’s known by the locals as Bat Island, and I had been told that it was smelly and tick and leech infested.  Which it probably is at the height of summer, but winter seemed like a perfect time to venture in to take a look at the bats (aka Flying Foxes) and the wonderful rehabilitation work being done by Landcare volunteers.

The island is only 30 metres from a suburban street in a pocket of remnant rainforest , and the first thing you notice on approaching the island is the noise. Not from the traffic, but from the bats. You would think that having been out all night searching for food, the bats would be sleeping peacefully in the trees, but no, most of them seem to be spitting, and screeching and fighting …

While others hang nearby, their Dracula capes wrapped around them trying to sleep …

Trying to sleep
Trying to sleep
Hanging in their Dracula capes
Hanging in their Dracula capes

Or yawning, stretching their wings and scrabbling along the branches, sometimes appearing to look directly down at you …

Branch full of bats

Fascinating and sweet faced creatures they may be, but I’m still not happy when I hear them at night fighting over the flowers on my mango tree.

And here’s a tip – If you go down to visit the bats, make sure you gawp and look upwards with your mouth firmly shut.  You never know what might fall out of the sky !!

Branch full of bats
Branch full of bats

What do Water Dragons want … ?

Published on by FJB2 Comments

Eastern Water dragons are not uncommon  around here, so I was pleased but not surprised to see one in my garden shortly after I moved in.   Unfortunately the noise and stress of my renovation was probably too much for this reptile and it wasn’t long before it disappeared.

Over the years I have added no fewer than five ponds and bird baths to my garden, and I have to admit to being a bit miffed that none of them seemed to appeal to Water dragons.   I realise that I might be a bit biased but they look pretty appealing to me.

So it’s a little ironic that yesterday I discovered a baby dragon living under the mat in the empty bath on my side deck. Not a water plant or even a drop of water in sight.
IMG_4960 (960x1280)
That shows you how much I know about creating aquatic wildlife habitat!

What I do know is that babies don’t arrive by themselves so that means that the parents are probably somewhere in the garden.  And I’m going to start looking at the point furthest from water of course …