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.
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
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...
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...
15 comments:
I think the ants are telling us something about rain. My storm flowers have all started to bloom another indication we are in for it.
If we have ants busy and building up high on the outsides of their nests we are getting rain down here. Good one Eduardo!!
No doubt Eduardo was licking his chops. :)
That frog looks huge! Interesting about the ants and rain. I enjoyed your post, Maria.
What a cute little possum. Will you continue to leave fruit out for him? We have a new visitor - a sulphur crested cockatoo. My DD2 wanted a bird feeder for Christmas so DD1 bought her one. Didn't take long for 'Sarge' (as she has named him) to find the food but when the dish was empty, he found out where the packets were kept, under the pergola next to our back door and helped himself. Even opened the vacuum packed seed packs and spread the seeds all over the place. Next day he opted for the sunflower seed pack that was beside the other one and did the same thing. He has played with my grandson's 3 little toy dinosaurs and this morning was pushing one of his toy trucks around. I must do a blog post soon and show him making himself at home on one of our outdoor chairs.
Omgosh, I love to read critter stories, especially with pics. I didn't really know that turkeys roosted in trees. We have wild turkeys in our area now, (Northern Indiana, Usa). That's kind of new for us, as I hadn't seen them before the past 10 years. We live in a kind of rural area and have lots of visits from raccoon and opossum. During the winter I have seen coyote tracks in the snow too. I put bread out for the squirrels and the tracks lead to the area where I put the bread. I love my frogs and toads. But I HATE snakes...absolutely. Last year was the first year we had seen them in our fish pond. I hope they don't come back this year.
xx, Carol
Your possum looks so cute - who would think that they are also able to demolish all your lettuce or parsley plantings in one evening's rampage !
Having said that, we have a possum living in the shed at Beelarong Community Farm. Peter Possum has been living there as long as I can remember - in fact somebody nailed a bucket on it's side to one of the inside walls of the shed and Peter feels safe in there.
But we had a big surprise recently. Peter had a dear little baby. So Peter has become 'Petra'. We spent an amazing time huddled in the shed watching the antics of Petra and the baby on her back. I know they sleep during the day but we probably disturbed them both as we were getting tools out of the shed.
The amazing thing is that we have seen no damage in the garden from Petra, we think they go elsewhere to eat. I'll email you a couple of photos.
Your possums have much nicer tails than ours, which are skinny and scaly and plain ugly. I enjoyed seeing all your wildlife and what a smart boy Edouardo is! He looks quite smug at his trick and he looks much like our Rosie in coloring. Rosie, however, has very long and fluffy fur.
Hi Maria, loved seeing the green frog and cheeky possum. Eduardo certainly tricked the pair of you with his feeds... heh heh bet he had a chuckle.
Cheers now :D)
I'm surprised by the possum drinking with the cat and humans right there. I guess it just needed a drink!
How wonderful that you get to see so much in the way of wild life from your backyard (well other than the turkey's roosting).
Late at night the deer come into the city here as the snow is covering most of their food sources. I haven't been lucky enough to see them, just their tracks in the snow.
Harvey did see a few pheasants flying past our home last week. Of course I missed them.
I think that green frog is gorgeous!!
God bless.
certainly lots of wild life around you, wonder how those turkeys balance on the branches without falling off. We had a surprise yesterday wehn we took Helen`s cats to be chipped and a man came out of the surgery carrying a beautiflul peacock which he kept kissing on its face!
The vet todl us cats will eat as much as you give them and as Helen is keeping hers as inside cats for now as a few have been poisened in our area thewy should be fed less than if they went outside, try telling them that!
So many great photos! What an interesting creature drinking out of Edouardo's bowl. I heard you were experiencing some very hot weather. Quite different then ours!
Have a good weekend.
I love the wildlife pics and the pics of Eduardo:) He looks like a cat we once had. Enjoyed the post;)
A new follower.
Your Oppossums look a LOT different than our ugly critters. I will have to get some photos the next time some come to "visit".
So much happening - we have ants under the eaves too - fortunately not inside -maybe rain?? we do get possums too...we don't usually feed them though. Eduardo is very polite - letting the possum get to his water!
Post a Comment