Fly Like a Magpie

A few days ago I wrote about Sparky, the half blind, non-flying magpie that visits our garden. Since then he’s discovered the ability to fly short distances and has been able to find his way up to low branches. He has also become a little more timid and doesn’t come so close to Gloria or myself.

Sadly, one thing that hasn’t changed is the bullying. More able bodied magpies still conduct occasional attacks on him.

One of those attacks was launched after I arrived home from work yesterday afternoon. Through the window I saw that three of them had him pinned to the ground, so I rushed outside and ran at them clapping my hands, to drive them away.

However, I suddenly found myself taking flight, but only momentarily. I soon crashed to the ground ripping the skin from my palms and grazing my knees.

It seems I’d slipped on the wet grass and ended up a few metres away on the garden after “bouncing” off the concrete path. Gloria says I just missed the concrete bird bath as I rolled several times across the ground.

At first I thought I must have hit my head because my glasses were knocked off but I couldn’t find any damage to my head or the glasses, but my hands were in a bad way. This morning the lower part of both palms are pitted, looking as if I have several burst blisters on each hand and my left wrist is painful.

I wonder whether Sparky appreciates what I suffered for him.

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“Sparky”

A magpie has adopted my wife.
Whenever she is in the garden the bird follows her around, picking at any bug or worm it finds and waiting for Gloria to unearth a curly-grub or two (beetle larvae). Our garden has an abundance of those grubs and it’s satisfying to put them to good use feeding the bird instead of having the grubs feeding from our plant roots.

The magpie is very trusting and doesn’t hesitate to come within easy reach. We first saw it two evenings ago, curled up on the ground near the side fence. Assuming it was injured, Gloria went to check whether it was alright, but as she approached it hopped away. Then yesterday, it joined her while she was weeding one of the veggie beds.

A magpie similar to “sparky”

Having a close view showed that its left eye was badly injured and for some reason it was unable to fly. The injury to its eye was possibly explained a little later when two healthy magpies swooped down and attacked it. These attacks were repeated a few times during the day until the aggressive birds were chased away.

Gloria has given her bird the name “Sparky” and was concerned that it may not survive the night. Our neighbour’s cat Leroy is a regular visitor and I have no doubt what would happen should the two of them meet. But Sparky made it through the night and joined Gloria in the garden again this morning. We’re not sure where it found shelter, but hope wherever it was it will continue to provide safety from cats and the frosts.

A Welcome Visitor

For almost 8 years I’ve been keeping a list of the different types of birds I’ve seen from my home. It includes the various birds seen in my garden, from my garden (on neighbouring properties) or flying over my garden. The one limiting factor is that I have to be on my own property when I see them.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to add another bird to the list, but this morning I saw something different feeding from a small Correa plant now in flower.

While it’s always exciting to be able to add a new entry on my list, this morning’s sighting was more special than most. It was an eastern spinebill.

What is so significant about this bird?

For many years I’ve owned a watercolour painting of an eastern spinebill. It’s been hanging on my bedroom wall since we moved into this house in 2006.

Almost from the day I bought the painting I’ve been wondering why I didn’t get one of a bird with more personal significance – for example, there were several I could have bought of blue wrens, birds that I regularly see .

Today’s sighting has now given more relevance to the painting. It’s no longer a depiction of a random bird, but is an illustration of a welcome new visitor.

Photo (of Spinebill on a Grevillea plant) from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinebill

Garden Renovations

For years we’ve planned to create a small area of paving in our backyard. The first idea was to try doing it ourselves, but I finally realised that it was going to remain an intention rather than a reality unless we got someone else to do it.

We are very happy with the result. Not only has it given us somewhere to sit outside, it has given the garden more structure and coherence.

Here are before and after shots.

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

AFTER (CLOSE-UP)

Early Spring Garden

What a difference turning the page of a calendar can make!

As soon as spring arrives it seems more appealing to get into the garden to pull weeds, dig garden beds and plant new things.

My garden is looking much better already. Garlic is doing well (planted last autumn) and onions are starting to look promising after a late planting. The first crop of broccoli is almost ready and we’ve already eaten the season’s first asparagus.

Throughout winter we’ve been able to pick self-sown lettuce as needed, and it is now taking over a large part of one garden bed.

New plantings include capsicum, chilli, zucchini and Lebanese cucumber. I’ve also sown corn, carrots, beetroot and butternut pumpkin.

So far a good year seems to be ahead.

The Onion Harvest

Onions and garlic seem to be the only real successes in our veggie garden this year. We have far too many red onions and some of them are enormous.

Last year a few Tuscan red onions went to seed. They sprouted impressive flower heads and after rain some of the seed within the head germinated, producing tiny onions on the flower head itself. I carefully rescued these and planted them. Yesterday’s harvest (pictured) is the result.

Usually we have an overabundance of beans but most of our current plants remained stunted and eventually shrivelled up. The only healthy one is a plant that sprouted in the herb garden where no bean seeds had been intentionally sown.

Our zucchini crop is also smaller than in the past, but that may be a blessing. We’re still getting enough for our own use without having to nag neighbours into taking some of the excess. I recall Barbara Kingsolver making a comment about people in her neighbourhood becoming more security conscious during zucchini season – locking their homes and cars to prevent anonymous gifts of excess zucchinis from neighbouring gardeners*.

Other successful plants this year are the Lebanese cucumbers. We’ve struggled with these in the past, but the last two years have been good ones. We also have promising signs with miniature watermelons. Yesterday I counted five or six good sized fruit developing and several smaller ones on the way. The smaller ones probably won’t amount to anything. We have such a short season for them to grow. They have to be planted late in the year to avoid frosts that persist even towards the end of spring, and then we can expect early frosts not long after the start of autumn. And anyway, it’s in summer when water melon is most appealing – so we’ll only want to eat those ready before summer’s end.

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*In her book Animal Vegetable Miracle.

Invasion of the Onion weed

A few days ago I found an onion weed plant in our garden. It’s the first we’ve had and hopefully (although not likely) it will be the last.

Onion weed is apparently a very invasive plant that is hard to get rid of once it’s established. Each plant produces hundreds of little bulblets that can be left behind in the soil if the plant is uprooted. It also spreads very easily from seed. If a plant is found it needs to have any flowers removed before they can produce seed.

Other suggestions I’ve seen for dealing with onion weed include continual cutting a plant to the ground which will eventually “tire” the plant out reducing the viability of the roots and bulbs. This is easier if the plant is growing in a lawn where a mower can be regularly run over it. A more brutal approach is to treat it with neat glyphosate, but many people are reluctant to use harsh chemicals of any kind in the garden. I’m guessing that the best thing is to find plants and deal with them as early as possible before they can become too established.

One possible source of our onion weed invasion was discovered last night. A while ago we bought some potted nerines from a nearby market. We found a second onion weed plant growing in one of the pots. This could have been the result of seed transferred from elsewhere after we bought the nerines or it may have been there in the pot all along. It has made us more wary of where we buy plants in the future.

 

[There are several plants that go by the name “onion weed”.  The one I’m referring to seems to be Allium Triquetrum.