Birds, lizards and centipedes

Our garden is starting to become a small ecosystem that attracts birds to hang around for a while. There is water as well as a couple of trees to park your babies on while you check out what insect goodies are in amongst the vegetables.

I was looking out the window a few days ago admiring the growth on the kang kong since we moved it to a water trough and started hand picking off the caterpillars. A honeyeater flew onto a waving stalk, picked amongst the leaves and flew off to a nearby tree branch with a green squirming caterpillar into its beak. Waiting for a nice feed was a fat baby that made quick work of downing the caterpillar. Next the parent bird flew into the vegie shadehouse and started walking around the beds checking out the underside of leaves. Yes - another one - up to the baby and another caterpillar contributes to the growth spurt of the baby bird. I think the birds are yellow tinted honeyeaters, but I need to do more careful bird watching before I can be sure. But no matter they are very beautiful little birds with great garden clean up skills.

I am also starting to see more of the common lizards that are all around here. Military dragons they are called. They are about 6 inches long and a tasty meal for the dogs so they keep a low profile while they also hunt out goodies amongst the vegetables.

We have been pulling out buffel grass again and no doubt will need to do it again and again. Pulling out a huge batch of it a large centipede came tearing out looking for a safe haven. Beautiful it was. A bright red head, green stripes over the creamy coloured segments of its body and a green, but maybe it was a red, forked tail. It looked a bit like this.

On the vegie front the dwarf beans are starting to flower, the lettuce is providing us with lots of leafy salad, the mint is taking off, the basil is taking over everything. We planted out a crown of asparagus this weekend.

I'm waiting for a delivery of organic seeds so we can start up rocket, pumpkin, tomatoes, parsley and more. We are going to need another shade house. Its amazing how vegie gardens spread themselves.