The Nesting Magpies Show

Our Maggies built their nest at eye level, about twenty metres from the house, directly in front of the kitchen window. So, for the last two months, we have been able to see their every move. The nest in huge, so it was quite a while before we could see the chick(s) that we could hear so easily. But then, in no time at all, we could see the fledgling(s) on the edge of the nest, flapping their wings, getting ready to leave the nest.

It is still not clear to me whether their is/was two chicks/fledglings: M. thinks two, I only got to see one. But since I can't see twenty metres without my glasses and I often don't wear them, I have been prepared to take M. at her word.

Anyway, this morning one of the chicks/fledglings left the nest. As I write, this fledgling is sitting, very awkwardly, in a thin and low branch of a tree (closer to the house). There are three other Magpies feeding it, one of which is the youngling from last season. None of the three older Magpies are returning to the nest to feed or care for any other chick, and so, if there was a twin (we have been calling them "the twins" for a few days now) it has died.

I wondered whether the youngling from last season was the second bird M. has seen in the nest, but she is adamant that it isn't. And, until we can have a look under the nest without disturbing the fledgling, there is no way of discovering whether a chick fell out or died and was pushed out.

I will try to get better photos of the whole family of Magpies. Unfortunately, the nest is too far away to take a happy snap any better than the above with my new digital camera, but now that they are out of the nest I should be able to do better.

Birds that Visit, Birds that Stay

[Australian Magpie—drenched and bedraggled after a storm]

There are lots of birds here, unlike the last place we lived.** And the longer we live here, and the more time we spend in the garden, and walking around the neighbourhood, the better we get to know the residents and the more chances we have had of catching a glimpse of occasional visitors.

As a way of keeping track of all the birds, I thought I would start a list and post photos as—of if—I can take them (and replace crappy photos with better ones as I can). The order and the numbers are taken from Ken Simpson and Nicolas Day's The Birds of Australia: A Book of Identification, 2nd ed. (1986); but I also used this site to identify birds. For visiting birds, I have added the month of the visit. (When my coz J. visits in November I am hoping he can correct and extend this short list!)

124. Pacific Black Duck. (Single visit.)
339. Galah. (Occasional visitor.)
343. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. (Regular visitor.)
354. Australian King Parrot. (Regular visitor, spring.)
366. Crimson Rosella elegans. (Resident.)
401. Southern Boobook. (Irregular visitor.)
409. Tawney Frogmouth. (Irregular visitor.)
424. Laughing Kookaburra. (Regular visitor.)
465. Blackbird. (Single visit.)
608. Red Wattlebird. (Regular visitor.)
749. Australian Magpie. (Resident; nested.)
753. Australian Raven. (Regular visitor.)

Also, a sparrow or finch of some description. (Resident.)

[Pacific Black Duck]

[Galahs]

[Sulphur-crested Cockatoo]

[Australian King Parrot (male)]

[Crimson Rosella elegans]

[Crimson Rosella elegans (juvenile)]

[Tawny Frogmouth]

[Laughing Kookaburra]

[Blackbird]

[Australian Magpies]

[Australian Ravens (calling but invisible in our Eucalyptus regnans)]

* * * * *

** Where we lived previously we only had two types of birds that were long-term residents: pigeons (aka, the flying rat or avis rattus) and Indian Mynahs. There were also two types of visiting birds: the Common Blackbird and the Wattlebird. I spent years throwing things at the pigeons, removing nests and cutting down roosts to try to get them to nest and roost somewhere else—with only moderate success. We got to like the Mynahs (Heckle and Jeckle) who took turns in scrounging food from B. The Blackbird would regularly throw leaves and twigs out of the garden beds onto the paths, and we only occasionally got to see the Wattlebird.

**There are a few birds that we have seen very close to the yard, but not in it, such as Indian Mynahs. The most interesting of these, for me, was 182 Buff-banded Rail which I saw on the path a few doors away. Of course, in the National Park—which is just around the corner—I have seen lots of birds that don't appear in the yard …

[Last updated 15 October 2011]

Crimson wattle

This is the crimson wattle M. planted about 6 months ago: it is over a metre high now and it has bloomed almost exactly a year from when we first moved in. We are looking forward to putting in even more of these.

Moving Rocky

[Arrow pointing to the tip of the boulder-iceberg]

These photos only tell part of the story. We started set to work on the terracing a few weekends back, and began the day by picking up the loose rocks. Two of the larger rocks didn't want to shift, so we dug down and discovered that they were not large rocks, but huge rocks. We kept digging and discovered that they were not huge rocks: they were freakin' boulders.

[Arrow pointing to the edge of dry part of the rock, which had been above-ground, and wet part of the rock, which had been below-ground. NB also the crowbar and the slight gap (visible at right) it has created between the stone and the earth]

At this point we would have buried them again except we discovered (by jamming the crowbar between them) that one of them moved a little, indicating that this was not bedrock we were excavating, but two enormous boulders. Since the boulders were located exactly where we want to plant a flowering gum (where the number 5 is on the planting scheme in my last post), we figured we'd try and dig them up. Foolish, foolish people.

After many hours slaving away, we managed to excavate the dirt, rocks and clay from around the first boulder, but were unable to get it out of the hole. We tried wobbling it back and forward, and trying to jam stones underneath to lift it up, but failed in this and everything else we could think of.** Until it occurred to me to drag the boulder out of its hole with a car, chains and rope.

The weight of the car and a little acceleration heading down hill was enough to shift the rock, but also enough to break four strands of rope (breaking strain ca. 1.2 metric tonnes!)—which sent me whizzing down the drive toward the Burwood Highway. Realising that we were going need a bigger boat stronger rope, we went and bought a 4WD rescue tether with a breaking strain of 4.5 metric tonnes.

[Out of the hole. All of the rocks in the fore-ground—and many more—were in the ground around the boulders, and had to be dug out of the hole]

The light having faded and the rain coming down, we had to wait until the next day to have a second go at the boulder. When we did, we managed to pull it free and most of the way along the lower terrace. At this point I switched positions and tried to drag our 350kg block up the slope, but the angle, the weight of the car and the boulder was too much for my little Civic: the clutch couldn't cope.††

[Along the terrace]

After a week of thought we decided to use simple and very old methods: we levered the rock from side to side, pushing one block of wood after another under it, wiggling it forward when we could, until we inched the rock up about two metres of 45 degree incline, so that it now rests on the edge of the drive. From here we can move it fairly easily—but we are content to leave it there while we consider what we use it for.

[half way up the slope]

Of course, we didn't move it in the first place without some idea of what we might use it for. My preferred option was to set it up as a standing stone in the middle of the herb garden we plan for behind the house, aligning it to North. Our 6hrs on the weekend, moving Rocky up a 2 metre slope showed me that there is no way we can get it up a 4 metres of curving steps into the herb garden, even if I can get it up the drive and along the path to the bottom of the steps on rollers.

[Almost completely up the slope]

The second option is to use it as a massive first step off the deck, above M.'s grey water feature—which also requires it to go up the drive along the path behind the house, along the path on the side garden (not built yet) and then lowered down the slope. Not easy, but do-able. A third option is to use it as a massive first step up from the turn around along the path that heads up to the deck. A fourth, is that we set set it up as a standing stone in the front garden aligning it to North, but we'd have to drag it up the drive and then slide it down through the garden, doubtless mashing a few new plants as we go.

Whatever we do, it is out of the way now and we can tackle the second boulder. And if that one proves difficult to dislodge we will bury it, even if we have to change our planting plans!

* * * * *

** This is a technique I recalled seeing in a landscaping book. Of course, the example was a perfect sphere: ours was a tombstone-shaped slab (80 x 50 x 30cms) which could only be rocked along its thinest edge.

†† It did occur to me that tethering my car to a boulder and then burning my clutch out trying to drag it up a steep drive was probably not covered by my insurance.

Some Progress; Or, Plum-Be-Gone

[Last week]

[now (after a very long day digging in the garden)]

[what we are aiming for]

[1] Callistemon rugulosus (Scarlet Bottlebrush)
[2] Callistemon citrinus (Crimson Bottlebrush)
[3] Callistemon rugulosus (Scarlet Bottlebrush)
[4] Corymbia ficifolia (Red flowering gum)
[5] Callistemon viminalis (Weeping Bottlebrush)
[6] Acacia leprosa (Cinnamon wattle)
[7] Acacia leprosa (Cinnamon wattle)
[8] Grevillea (Robyn Gordon)

The stone retaining walls will have to be at least partly rebuilt. When we rebuild them we will put in foundations/supports for a brush fence. The fence is made of panels of Melaleuca uncinata branches between steel posts. The picture below gives an idea of the look (though, after a while, the fence will be obscured by all the plants) and what it will look like rising straight out of a wall as it will on the other side of the drive.

Plants for the Lower Terrace

M's domain—in the front yard—ends at the turn around. In other words, I claimed responsibility for the jungle of weeds, and the impossibly steep embankment between our drive/turn around and the road, most of which seems to be owned, but has been completely abandoned by, Vic Roads. It is a kind-of nature strip, partly triangular, about five meters in width at its widest, as the magpie flies, but about double that in terms of surface area. I gather we have responsibility to maintain it, the way everyone else has to mow their nature strip.

Most of this embankment is precipitous. The face of it is also still completely covered in agapanthus and there is also still enough blackberry on it to make it impossible to climb up, slide down or otherwise move on its surface: to weed or plant anything. Probably, either a ladder or a abseiling rig of some sort would be necessary. At the moment, I don't want to think about it.

The upper part of this area (from three to five metres above the road), which we call the "lower" or "first" terrace is the flat-ish part of our "nature strip." My intention to make it really flat and plant it out with a dense mass of flowering natives all of which have red flowers: not an easy task since red is a particularly unusual colour on native (Aussie) plants. The shrubs and trees will, I hope, look good, be a privacy screen and a sound barrier. (That is, utile dulci: useful and pleasant.)

I also want to cover, in time, the whole face of the embankment in ground cover and low (red-flowering) shrubs. But the only way I can do this is by poisoning a few small groups of weeds and planting a few shrubs at a time, waiting until they are established and then moving on, gradually completely replacing the weeds. Any wholesale weeding or poisoning—in fact, any real disturbance of the soil and the roots holding it together—and the entire embankment could wash away!

So I will start with retaining wall and planting behind it on the lower terrace, move and rebuild the second terrace and plant behind it, erect the fence and then work my way from the mouth of the drive along the embankment. By the time it is finished, the combination of native plants, brush fence and stone retaining walls, ought to look brilliant—and distinctive.

The native trees and shrubs I have in mind (at present) are a mix of the following.

Flowering gum

Corymbia ficifolia (red flowering gum: the grafted cultivar Wildfire), this has a dense foliage and abundant scarlet flowers in summer but is slow-growing and from WA [6m x 3-4m wide]. This is the one I want even though Metropolitan Tree Growers warn that "there are no mature (15+ years) populations" of these grafted trees and it "is possible that graft incompatibility … could cause trees to become unstable (at the graft union)". That is, a mature tree might break off 10cm above ground level and fall onto the Burwood Highway!

Wattle

Acacia leprosa (cinnamon wattle: the grafted cultivar Scarlet Blaze, which has masses of round red flowerheads (late winter to early spring) [5m x 3m wide]. All of these Kinglake cinnamon wattles are propagated by cuttings from a single—unusual—parent tree. The yellow-flower form is indigenous to the area.

Bottlebrush

Callistemon rugulosus [aka C. macropunctatus] (Scarlet Bottlebrush; flowers from spring to autumn. This seems to be the one with the most spectacular red flowers, but it doesn't get particularly tall; [2–4m x 2–4m wide].

Callistemon citrinus (Crimson Bottlebrush); flowers from spring to late summer; fast growing. This one flowers for longer but the new growth is pink; [3–7m x 2–5m wide]

Callistemon viminalis (Weeping Bottlebrush; produces large, brilliant red flowers spring and summer; fast growing and tall; [8m x 3m]

Grevilleas

Grevillea banksii x G. bipinnatifida: the grafted cultivar "Robyn Gordon"; spectacular deep red flowers; dense foliage; flowers year round (1–2m x 3m wide).

Other trees M. is trying to convince me to plant

Now that the terrace is almost clear and getting close to being ready to plant, I think M. is regretting her decision to allow me to plant non-indigenous natives on this spot. She has been trying to convince me to consider these:

Eucalyptus ovata (swamp gum), which is fast growing and indigenous, but has very open foliage and canopy [20–25m x 8m wide];

Eucalyptus dives (broad-leaved peppermint gum) [15–25m x 6-8m wide]

Eucalyptus radiata (narrow-leaf peppermint gum) [20–40m x 6-10m wide]. There are two narrow-leaf peppermint gums in the front yard, so they are well adapted to the site and will grow fast and well (and tall!).

With a busy three months ahead of me I'll have plenty of time to decide, and to map out a planting scheme. And M. has plenty of time to lobby for these non-red-flowering plants.

Even More Weeding (Bored yet? We are.)

About six months ago, I posted this picture of M. on the lower terrace.

Here is an update:

What should be obvious from comparing the two pix is that we have cut down the plum tree, and I have started the terracing, using red gum sleepers and red gum posts cut and salvaged from old fence posts. Also obvioius, but on the negative side, the grass has re-grown and the agapanthus has fought back in the spots where we didn't dig out the roots.

But, also gone is all the ivy from the fence (there is still a bit next to the tree), most of the blackberry (roots and all) and a lot of cherry laurel (which has been cut back well over the fence line). We also have shifted some soil (spoil actually) from the trench around the garage, ready to spread out over the terrace once the sleepers go up.

Not so obvious is that the tree limb which occupied all the space between the plum and the fence has now been completely removed (we are burning the last of it now, the bit marked in the top photo), including the splinters that were still attached to the tree (a narrow-leaf peppermint gum), and the dead wood, termite larvae and termite poop have been dug out too.

The biggest step is the start on the retaining wall, but the most obvious when you stand on the drive is the plum tree. It had to go (dying—in fact, mostly dead—and not native) to make room for the native trees and shrubs we want to plant (which I will discuss in another post). But it is amazing how exposed this spot seems now. So we are anxious to get the terrace finished and the plants in so we can rebuild the wall for terrace no.2 and get a six foot brushwood fence in place.