Author: fifteenacres

Summer Hail

After a few warm Summer days, including a day where the temperature reached over 30 degrees Celsius, we experience a few days of  Winter temperatures. There was ice over the road, and hail stones falling,   Bring on the rain, I love it -water to fill up the dam and stop the undergrowth from drying … Continue reading Summer Hail

Pale Vanilla-lily: Arthropodium milleflorum

We’ve had Chocolate Lilies flowering for a few months now, so it was exciting to finally see some Pale Vanilla-Lilies.  I’ve seen photographs of the flowers in field guides, with their fluffy purple and white stamens.  They have fascinated me for months. It turns out that the flowers are actually very small.  The field guide … Continue reading Pale Vanilla-lily: Arthropodium milleflorum

Dragons in the Garden

Gardening in the hot Summer weather can spring a few surprises on those who are not paying attention… like the odd reptile sheltering in the weeds.  Luckily for me, it wasn’t a snake.  Also, fortunately, I had come across two Jacky Dragon’s previously – thanks to the cats – so I had already researched them, … Continue reading Dragons in the Garden

An Echidna Sighting at Last!

For more than a year I have been finding holes dug by Echidnas – usually around ant nests and plant roots – without having even the smallest glimpse of an Echidna.  There was a moment, about a month ago, where someone thought they saw one.  By the time I got my camera out and we … Continue reading An Echidna Sighting at Last!

White-Throated Treecreeper

I’ve been so focused on finding Australian Terrestrial Orchids over Spring that I haven’t really been looking out for new bird species.  Yesterday, I was still hunting for flowers when a bird landed on a nearby tree. Its habit of climbing up and around the tree trunk looking for insects alerted me to the possibility … Continue reading White-Throated Treecreeper

Familiar Faces: Wildlife, Home, and Making Contact

The first thing I do when I get out of bed each day is look out the window to see ‘who’ is there.  We recognise individual birds and animals within a species because they  seem to have made their regular patch of turf the land outside our windows.  It is their home as much as … Continue reading Familiar Faces: Wildlife, Home, and Making Contact

A Privilege to Watch

I couldn’t believe my luck this morning, when our regular Eastern Grey Kangaroo allowed her joey to suckle right in front of the study window.  She just stood there for twenty minutes or so while the joey (otherwise independent)  put her mouth into the pouch for a feed. Unfortunately, a car noise disturbed them, and … Continue reading A Privilege to Watch

Vegetable Tales

For those of you who have been following the vegetable garden and our attempts to grow our own food, I’m sorry for the long wait.  The truth is, we’ve had more failure than success over the past year.  Initially the vegetables planted in the greenhouse seemed to be doing very well. When Winter came, we … Continue reading Vegetable Tales

Fishing for Yabbies

These two White Faced Herons were fishing in the dam today.  We often wonder what lives beneath the surface of the water.  Not being fisher-person’s, we don’t really know the tell-tale signs, and we don’t own the right equipment to attempt to fish in it.  A photograph of one White-Faced Heron holding a yabby proves … Continue reading Fishing for Yabbies

X is for Xanthorrhoea!

Last year I wrote a post about Xanthorrhoea, using my only reference guide at the time to try to determine the species.  A few comments suggested I had incorrectly named the plant as Xanthorrhoea Resinosa when it was more likely to be Xanthorrhoea Minor.  The feedback was probably correct. However, by the time I could check, the flowers … Continue reading X is for Xanthorrhoea!

Light and Shade

The texture and colour of bark continues to fascinate me. Often the colour of the bark on a single tree can change, depending on the time of day, whether it is sunny or shady, and how intense the light is on a particular day.  I love the contrast in colour and texture in this shot, … Continue reading Light and Shade

Independence!

The Eastern Grey Kangaroos were back again this week, after an absence of a month or two.  On the weekend a male and female made a brief appearance en-route to the back of the property, and this morning we had a group of four: two males, a female, and the joey, which is now independent. … Continue reading Independence!

Duck-Orchid

Another intriguing Australian Terrestrial Orchid  was among the many flowers we found on a sunny day last week.  Richard initially saw a plant that seemed to have a differently shaped bud. We noted where it was growing and waited for our expert friend to visit. She identified that it would develop into a Duck-Orchid. Another … Continue reading Duck-Orchid

Cheeky Cockatoos!!

For the last week or so, this is what I have seen through my study window: Update: I just took these two photos, which I am adding to the post – even better than the one I originally used!   Now, back to the original post! Somehow, this Sulphur Crested Cockatoo has figured out that … Continue reading Cheeky Cockatoos!!

Tiger Orchid: Diuris sulphurea

We are lucky enough to have clumps of Tiger Orchids. These beautiful,  often large, flowers really attract attention with their bright yellows, browns and blacks. A ‘cousin’ of the Donkey Orchid, the Tiger Orchid shares the two large upright lobes.   We have Tiger Orchids in all of our main micro-climate zones.  They are growing … Continue reading Tiger Orchid: Diuris sulphurea

Magpie Breeding Season – Hold Onto Your Hat!

For the past six weeks or so, I haven’t been able to step outside the house without a sturdy hat.  Breeding magpies are very defensive, and they will dive-bomb anything they perceive to be a threat, including innocent humans. Unfortunately, their aggressive habits have driven off some of the other breeding birds, such as the … Continue reading Magpie Breeding Season – Hold Onto Your Hat!

Spotted Sun Orchids (Thelymitra ixioides)

Over the last few weeks I have taken a swag of photos of Australian native flowers, including  more Australian Terrestrial Orchids.  Rather than post a gallery of them here, I’ll post them one by one, and build these posts into a plant index.  Today, I’m going to focus on the beautiful  Spotted Sun Orchids. Many … Continue reading Spotted Sun Orchids (Thelymitra ixioides)

Hairy Caterpillar

I found this very hairy caterpillar a week or so ago.  This morning, I thought I might identify the species, but I can’t find an exact match.  My best guess is that it belongs to the ARCTIIDAE family, otherwise known as ‘Woolly Bears’.  In Australia, there are quite a number of ‘Woolly Bears’ so I wasn’t able … Continue reading Hairy Caterpillar

Donkey Orchid (Diuris orientis)

These  Donkey Orchids were a cheerful addition to my daily walk.  We had a patch of around five or six plants in a three meter radius in a transitional position between dry bushland and a grassed area.   While they were not densely packed together, I found it interesting that they were all growing in … Continue reading Donkey Orchid (Diuris orientis)

Chocolate Lily (Arthropodium strictum)

The first of the Chocolate Lilies is in flower!  We had them last year, but that was before I developed an interest in native flowers. So I really didn’t take much notice of them until we were cleaning up the land for the Summer period.  In the process, a few were mown down.  I took … Continue reading Chocolate Lily (Arthropodium strictum)

Brown-clubbed Spider-orchid Caladenia phaeoclavia

My friend pointed out the leaves of the spider orchid before it flowered.  We placed a loop of squared fence wire around the precious flower (so the Swamp Wallaby would not eat it) and waited.  Eventually it bloomed. Luckily I took some photographs, because I went back a few days later to find only a … Continue reading Brown-clubbed Spider-orchid Caladenia phaeoclavia

And then there were nine…with apologies to Agatha Christie!

Last year, the pair of Australian Wood Ducks successfully raised eleven ducklings to maturity, and we were hoping they would be able to do the same for the twelve ducklings in this year’s brood.  The ducks frequently walk from wherever they nest  to the grass verge in front of the dam to forage, and this … Continue reading And then there were nine…with apologies to Agatha Christie!

Sparring Pacific Black Ducks

On Friday night we attended our first Field Naturalist meeting in Ballarat.  By asking myself the simple question, ‘What do we have on our land?’ I have discovered the pleasure of finding a bird or a plant, and classifying it. The Field Naturalists seemed a logical progression, but for various reasons  Friday was the first … Continue reading Sparring Pacific Black Ducks