They're Back!!!

Over the years of writing this blog, I've written a few posts about my battles with the bush turkeys. They love my garden; especially my veggie garden beds...many readers from around the world have commented on previous posts about the turkeys, telling me of their battles with wildlife...deer, rabbits, birds, kangaroos etc
this was last year...

Last year and the year before that, I didn't have many issues with the turkeys....lulled into a sense of false security eh? My 'fake turkey' made by a friend has been pretty good at discouraging the male birds but maybe the turkeys are getting smarter?

The use of wire and plastic netting and wooden stakes is an integral part of gardening; this is the veggie bed adjacent to the raised 'sweet potato' bed...

Last month I was so proud of my 'sweet potato' garden bed. The plants had grown thickly and completely filled the raised bed that I use for growing them. I was looking forward to digging up a bumper crop in October. A male turkey had dug up some veggies in my larger veggie patch but the smaller sweet potato bed had been left untouched. I had put plastic mesh over that bed though, just in case.
Then one morning I came out to the garden and found this...

Silly me thinking that the plastic mesh would keep the turkeys out of the bed. It was just flung aside!
I replanted any plants that had been left and we got out the wire mesh. I put one layer over and then decided to put another layer over; all weighted down with pavers.

While we were away in Sydney, the plants didn't do very well but since we've been home, with some TLC the plants are gradually 'coming back'.
Knowing that a lot of friends who live nearby have their own battles with the turkeys, I posted photos on Facebook. One friend wrote this comment...I realise that I really shouldn't whinge/complain about the turkeys in my yard, after reading this! But maybe just a bit of a grizzle now and then! Lol


But I haven't lost my sense of humour! 

A few wildlife encounters...

Some readers would recall some of my posts about my thoughts on the bush turkeys, native animals that thrive not only in bush land areas but also in suburbia. Well I learned something new about them on our little trip to Port Macquarie.
Sure, the one strolling through the ground floor car park of our apartment block didn't surprise me...

But on our second evening there, I was sitting on the balcony and I noticed some rather large black birds roosting in a large tree on the other side of the resort's pool.

 I thought I was seeing things because these birds sure looked like bush turkeys...and gradually the tree's branches were filling with birds roosting. DH agreed that they looked like bush turkeys and he took photos with his 'you beaut' camera with lots of zoom. But the photos weren't too clear when we checked them when we were back home, so he deleted them. In the meantime I had checked Google and found out that the turkeys, do indeed, roost in trees at night. (although the big trees in our yard  aren't to their liking...thank goodness! )
So some photos from the web...

It's been quite hot here in Brisbane (and in most parts of the country too!) and for quite a few weeks the little black ants have been invading homes and gardens. Surprisingly, they not in our shower recess, and usually they are there all year round. Normally I have to clean up both the ants and the 'specks' they leave on the floor of the shower before showers in the morning. At the moment, the ants are getting into Eduardo's water bowl and his food bowls which is to be expected...but they are also trailing along under the eaves...can we expect a lot of rain soon and the ants are getting their 'provisions' up high???

And one night last week I noticed this beautiful fellow (lass?) sitting on the top step at the back of our side veranda...the frog didn't seem the least bit perturbed when Eduardo stood on the step to get a closer look at what DH and I were looking at!

We are fortunate to have such lovely big green frogs in our garden as the toad population tends to overwhelm the frogs, causing their numbers to decline.

One night recently, while eating dinner on the veranda, out of the corner of one eye I had noticed a movement and saw that some creature was drinking from Eduardo's water bowl. It was a brushtail possum and it was quite unconcerned by the audience while it drank.

We noticed it had some cuts on its head; probably the result of fighting with another possum. It came back for a few nights for a drink and to check for leftovers in the cat's bowl. I left a bowl of water and some chopped up fruit downstairs for a few days and gradually less and less of the fruit was taken. So we like to hope he was feeling better.

Now for some not so 'wild life'...
When we were in Cairns in last November, the greeting committee in the Cairns hotel was Bruiser, who loved under chin tickles and ear scratches. He was lovely!

And lastly, this is a rather smug Eduardo. On this night, we realised after dinner, that Eddie had actually been fed twice...I fed him at 5pm as usual and DH fed him an hour or so later. The cat ate both meals, leaving nothing! He was only 'sprung' when DH noticed 2 tins rinsed out and left on the sink draining, ready to go into the recycling bin...

Ninety-nine percent of the time I feed Eduardo, so he must have felt quite chuffed to have got another meal out of DH! lol

 

The turkey...

At the moment, DH and I are in Alexandra Headlands for the rest of the week. Thursday and Friday, DH will play in the golf competition at Horton Park, but today and tomorrow 'we're just chillin' lol.

We caught up with friends today over lunch at the Buderim Tavern. What an amazing view from our table...

The dining area is quite large..

Then we went to Pat and Paul's place for coffee...

Lurking in the beautiful tropical garden were these 2 creatures!

Pat and I have been friends since I moved into the house next to her mother's in 1971. Pat's daughter Robyn set up the Buderim Youth Theatre of Excellence and DH and I often drive up to see productions of this company.
It's lovely being away for a a few days but in the back of my mind, I still have a 'turkey issue' back home. Yep! The bush turkeys are back! Well they haven't really ever gone away, but the destruction had eased for a while...till the last week.
Tommy, the faux turkey came to live here last week when DH's friend Tim, completed making it.

The faux turkey discourages the male, causing him/them to go elsewhere to build the mound. Well that seems to have happened...the male doesn't seem to be around...but Miss/Mrs/Ms Turkey has become a real pest.

Finally I managed to get a photo showing what the turkey is 'up to'...

The veggie bed that was dug over and left after I harvested the sweet potato crop...well I thought that I had dug up all the large ones, just leaving tiny ones to grow shoots and become next year's crop. But Miss Turkey has found some large sweet potatoes that I missed. And then she eats the middle out of them! As well, she is clever enough to dig up the 'shoots' of the next crop as she must have worked out that there is a tuber attached...

DH and I put down some mesh on the garden bed to discourage her but it looks like it could be a bit of a battle to grow sweet potatoes now. And did I mention what Miss Turkey has done to my ordinary potato crop ? Devastation is the only word for it. Thank goodness there are a number of fruit shops and supermarkets around here, otherwise we would be 'vegetableless'. I wonder whether she will get a taste for cherry tomatoes? They are about the only thing left growing in the vegetable patch.  lol

Still talking about the garden...

My neighbour across the road has her daughter and grandson living with her. Young Jay attends the local school and DH and I are always happy to help in any of the school's fundraising efforts. So it was that a few weeks ago Jay and his grandma came over to our place with info about the latest venture to raise funds for the school.

I thought what a great idea; they were selling plants...

 So I read through the brochure and then chose some items to purchase...

Jay brought over my goodies on Friday afternoon... This is what I bought
(Hmm have tried and retried to upload this photo...it keeps being turned on its side)

These little kits contain everything that you need to get these plants started...What a wonderful change from pie drives and chocolate drives!

And now, some more turkey talk...

 Today in my garden I have no damage from Mr Turkey...but yesterday morning I wasn't very happy! DH and I had spent part of Saturday afternoon, finishing enclosing 2 of my veggie beds...but the mesh wasn't pulled tightly enough and the turkey got in and dug big holes in my potted tomatoes...

So I remembered something a friend who lives in a suburb a bit further out than mine, had told me last year. Erica had said that her dad had started putting rocks in the pot plants to stop the turkeys digging out the plants...so...I collected rocks that had been thrown into our place from the earth moving equipment next door. When I ran out of rocks, I used some spare pavers that we had (about 6 inch squares) and when I ran out of pavers I used small empty pottery flower pots. I not only have potted tomatoes in this bed, I have a number near the larger garden bed on the other side of the backyard. And these other tomatoes were thriving and already producing tomatoes...I wouldn't be happy to lose them. This is the result...not aesthetically pleasing but if it works, I'm happy!

After DH had left for Rockhampton, I worked on the problem of 'wobbly mesh'. I hammered in more star pickets. Then I used a roll of twist tie (plastic covered wire) and ran it around the top of the mesh, winding it around the pickets and through at least one hole in the star picket. Then I cut off lengths of twist tie and 'overstitched' the top of the mesh to the line of twist tie. I had run out of star pickets so I hammered in some new wooden tomato stakes to further stabilise the sides of the enclosure. It 'ain't pretty' but it's all my own work!!! lol

Closer detail of the over stitching...

Hopefully DH's friend can soon provide me with a Mr Faux Turkey as Vireya named him! However, today Tim  also started work on the election so I may have to wait awhile. Hopefully my fortifications will hold...

Also in the garden at the moment...

The King Orchid that 'lives' near the 2nd compost bin, is flowering!

 The mango tree is covered with flowers...it's just the basic backyard mango variety. Being covered in flowers does not necessarily guarantee a crop!

 And the sweet little flowers on the dianella...soon there will be vivid blue berries where the flowers were.

Doing all that work in the garden yesterday made me think of my late father (he died when I was 15) and his attempts at building structures in his beloved fruit and vegetable garden. He wasn't very adept with tools and made some rather unusual and rickety trellises...here's a photo I took of my dad in his garden the year I was 14.

And, here is a photo a year after he died...already his garden was overgrown...

Despite the poignancy of these 2 photos, it was lovely to reflect on them yesterday as it was Father's Day here in Australia.