Lizards in the Ceiling

Standing in the kitchen, serving myself dinner.

Thump, scrabble, scrape, thump, bump from the ceiling.

Possums? This early in the evening? How many of them are there?

The ceiling sounds like it's about to collapse. WALLOP.

Then it appears in the skylight in the kitchen.

A racehorse goanna.

That's when the fun begins.

How do we get it out?

There was much coaxing and many attempts to get it into a garbage bag so we could release it outside. It wasn't having a bar of it and jumped out onto the floor instead.

I did an impersonation of the guinea pigs, squealed loudly and jumped up on the sofa (essentially, I behaved like a great big girl's blouse!).

LomL and B1 eventually rounded it up (with no assistance at all from me or B2) and it was released into the backyard where it quickly scarpered off.

Removing the skylight cover to get to the goanna

It was not impressed at being coaxed into a bag

Fabulous fellow was hard to catch!

Abounding Life in the Backyard

Baby bobtail attempting to camouflage itself - see why they're so hard to spot?

Up close and personal with the baby bobtail

A baby bobtail lizard wandered lazily past the back door two days ago. What did the children do? They called me over to come see the baby. Not because they were particularly interested, new life is par for the course for them. They don't see the delight in sighting a baby of a species so recently under threat. Only a few years ago the population of bobtails in the hills was nearly decimated because of a virus. But for B1 and B2 it's no big deal, we've had a breeding pair on our property since before we moved in.

Magpie preparing for take-off

For me though, it was sheer delight and a sign that my garden is providing precisely the right kind of environment for breeding to occur. That's exciting on so many levels. My garden has become not only my retreat and haven, but that of other creatures too. We have nests galore filled with eggs of Red Wattle Birds, Black Cockatoos, White Cockatoos and Galahs are no strangers, Magpies, Twenty-eight Parrots and Bronze-wing Pigeons abound. We even have interlopers - Kookaburras and Rainbow Lorikeets stop by to eat mice or fruit. But there is something truly charming about having a garden that encourages bobtails and motorbike frogs to breed. And my heart is always glad at seeing them.

This is Australia

I drove around the corner on my way to pick up B2 from school when a large collection of animals in the paddock caught my attention. It was sufficiently unusual for me to slow down and pull off the road. I'm pretty used to seeing various animals in paddocks around where I live. There are sheep, horses, dogs, birds, small groups of kangaroos and even a couple of alpacas. But the sheer number of creatures is what stopped me in my tracks.

I drove up a lane that skirts the boundary of said paddock and there they were - masses of kangaroos. There must have been nearly 30 of them, lounging in the sun, munching on the grass and generally doing what kangaroos do best.

It's nice to be reminded that nature still abounds despite the creep of development. There's certainly very little that's more pan-Australian than a mob of kangaroos.

There has been plentiful rainfall and it's heartening to see the local wildlife flourishing. There are birds aplenty visiting the garden (including some finches I've not seen this far north before) and we continue to have breeding pairs of bobtail lizards around the house. All in all, it's shaping up to be a glorious Spring.