Please do drop by and visit my other blog: My Dry Tropics Garden ... it provides a more informative look at what's going on in my garden out in the bush.
Can you believe it? After waiting to get into the garden for weeks and weeks over the summer ... last weekend was a triumph! Almost two glorious days gardening ... only interrupted by a heavy shower or two of rain.
So roll on this weekend ... the last weekend of our summer! I was so looking forward to getting out there again ... especially after working so hard in the greenhouse garden last weekend ... BUT then the heavens opened once more!! It might be the end of summer ... but not the end of the 'wet' season!
There was absolutely no chance of finishing off the potting up out in the courtyard garden ....
and no chance of getting out into the greenhouse garden to sow more seedlings!
It was time to take a comfy seat out on the verandah ....
gaze out at the wattles in bloom ....
... appreciate the last of the Lagerstroemia flowers ....
... drool over some gardening magazines and catalogues ....
and then ???? .... what does a frustrated gardener do when she's had to shelve yet another weekend's worth of work in the garden? .... cook! Apple crumble anyone?
There is a family of Laughing Kookaburras that live in and around the little valley in the foothills here and they are regular visitors to my property.
These birds are the largest of the kingfishers, but unlike other kingfishers, they inhabit the same territory all year round.
The Laughing Kookaburra is instantly recognisable with its' white belly, whitish head, dark brown eye-stripes ...
.... brown wings and a brown back.
It has a huge bill that is black on the top and tan on the lower mandible ... very useful for handling the food it likes to eat!
It feeds mostly on insects like the Elephant Beetle in the photo above, and also worms and crustaceans. Although it also likes to dine on the occasional small snake, mammals, frogs and birds.
The method of hunting is a 'Perch and Pounce" approach. The kookaburra will sit motionless on a vantage point ... like a tree branch or a railing! ... and stare fixedly at the ground below.
When it sights prey, it will flutter down on to it, seize it in the bill, and fly back to a perch to eat it. Small prey is usually eaten whole, but larger prey is killed by bashing it against the ground or a tree branch.
That's exactly what this kookaburra was doing right before I got this shot ... it was bashing the large Elephant Beetle against the rock to kill it. I've also seen a kookaburra bashing a large snail against a rock in order to smash the shell first.
These birds are called the 'Laughing Kookaburra' as they have a loud, raucous call that sounds very much like a laugh ... the "koo-koo-koo-ka-ka-ka" echoes up and down the valley beside my home every morning, most evenings and sometimes during the day as well.
Here's a little snippet of the Laughing Kookaburra's song. Whilst the little fellow in the video didn't join in the chorus, he was surrounded by family members in fine voice. (Try to ignore the Cicada song in the background. There was a bit of competition going on!)
Over here they are sometimes referred to as "the Bushman's clock" because they call just before dawn every morning! They are my alarm clock ... I don't really need the other sort at all!
Of course, according to an Aboriginal legend, the kookaburra's famous chorus of laughter every morning is a signal for the sky people to light the great fire that illuminates and warms the earth by day. It's actually more to do with marking territory ... but I love this story!
I was asked last week what is the difference between wallabies and kangaroos. Well ... wallabies are included in the animal group called 'kangaroos'. Kangaroos are part of the family Macropodidae, a group of marsupial mammals with huge hind feet. They range in size from tiny wallabies to enormous kangaroos, all with the same general body form.
The most obvious difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo is their size. As a rule, the kangaroo is generally much larger than the wallaby ... it has more height between its ankles and knees. The kangaroo's legs are built for speed on open terrain ... while the wallaby's more compact legs are built for agility in wooded areas.
Another difference between the two is their colouring. A wallaby's coat is usually brighter with two or three differing colours, whilst the kangaroo's is far less spalshy and they tend to be all one colour .... like grey or brown.
If you want to be scientific about telling the difference, you'd have to get them to open up their mouths ... and look at their molars. They eat their meals in different habitats ... so their teeth have evolved to suit their specific meal choices!
So following on from last Wednesday's post, I will show you the Eastern Grey Kangaroo which is a kangaroo quite common around north-eastern Queensland. While I don't see them around my place here in the foothills, they can be seen roaming free in our city's animal sanctuary.
The Eastern Grey Kangaroo has uniform woolly grey-brown fur ... the fur is slightly darker on shoulders and in the middle of the back. The tail is tipped with black.
This is one of the younger Eastern Greys at the Sanctuary.
There was absolutely no chance of finishing off the potting up out in the courtyard garden ....
... appreciate the last of the Lagerstroemia flowers ....
and then ???? .... what does a frustrated gardener do when she's had to shelve yet another weekend's worth of work in the garden? .... cook! Apple crumble anyone?
