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| Rain on the back dam |
And it's not been soft gentle showers...its pissed down! It rained every day in February and only the intensity varied. There were some gaps between showers on 'drier' days, but all in all Australia continued to live up to its reputation for extremes. In November and December we were crying out for rain, well someone obviously heard us and pressed the on switch and it hasn't stopped since. Our water tanks are overflowing and the intermittent creeks that are dry for most of the year are flowing well.
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| Waterfall at the top bridge |
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| The Walking Stick Palms enjoy a drink. |
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| And this was taken in a 'drier' moment |
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| and it flows and it flows and it flows! |
From the gardeners point of view there would appear to be little you can do, but it is important to keep an eye on things. One problem is with shrubs that are growing at a bit of an angle. What happens is the rain builds up on the leaves and the extra weight causes the shrub to lean over. Eventually the weight of water reaches a point where it falls off and the shrub whips back up into its normal position; however, the process is now repeated and this can continue weakening the roots grip on the now sodden soil until eventually the shrub is pulled from the ground. I lost one of my favourite Grevilleas to this process and since then have been quick to react with my pruning shears to cut any leaning shrubs back into a more upright shape that can better handle the weight of water.
The chooks have been growing fast, despite being somewhat soggy, but I have been busy cutting drainage channels around the coops to remove the worst of the water. The channels have worked well, but there has still been a mud pool around the run.
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| Mucky runs |
To keep them from the worst of it I've been keeping an eye on their bedding and changing the straw and sawdust more regularly, and so far we haven't had any problems.
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| The grey headed pullets at 11-weeks old with mums and the Partridge Wyndotte Bantams. |
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| The Salmon Faverolles at 8-weeks old (Cock on the right) |
Despite branches being broken from the trees and shrubs being pulled over most of the plants have done well and the woodland is very green. In particular the Beehive Gingers have come into flower and are looking gorgeous.
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| Tall Red looking a little tatty |
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| Beehive Ginger in flower |
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| Green Beehive Gingers on left and Chocolate Beehive Gingers on right. |
And so onto the birds....
Regulars (seen at least five times per week)
Australian Magpie
Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Bush Turkey
Double-barred Finch
Forest Kingfisher
Galah
Magpie Lark
Pacific Black Duck
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| Pacific Black Ducks enjoying the rain |
Peaceful Dove
Pied Currawong
Plumed Whistling Duck
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| Plumed Whistling Duck |
Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
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| Sulphur-crested Cockatoo with soggy seed. |
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| Cocky, crest down and in flight, |
Wood Duck
Common (seen at least twice a week)
Eastern Whipbird
Noisy Friarbird
Pale Headed Rosella
Spangled Drongo
Torresian Crow
Welcome Swallow
White-throated Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Uncommon (seen 2-3 times per month)
Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Dollarbird
Grey Shrike Thrush
King Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Lewins Honeyeater
Little Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Little Pied Cormorant
Olive-backed Oriole
Striated Pardalote
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Rare (only seen once in the month)
Azure Kingfisher
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| Azure Kingfisher (last post incorrectly labelled as Sacred Kingfisher) |
Brown Cuckoo Dove
Brown Honeyeater
Collared Sparrowhawk
Eastern Spinebill
Figbird
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Wedge-tailed Eagle
White-bellied Sea Eagle
Willie Wagtail
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Which comes to 48-species, which, considering the foul weather isn't that bad.
The rain is still going as I write this, but hopefully as we move into Autumn it will begin to dry out.
