Invasion of the blood suckers
This rain has left me feeling very popular. Seems that every time I step outside, fat, ribbed bodies reach up and out of the foliage and wave at me. Leeches. Everywhere. We often spot them too late as we follow little red doggy footprints, inked in blood, around the house, the strangest of treasure hunts, until we get to a very full and now rejected leech flailing around on the floor covered in dog hair and dust bunnies.
Dr Chris Reid wrote this fantastic article about leeches after our last spate of seemingly non stop, torrential rain.
More torrential rain
At the time of writing, the rain was still bucketing down. There had been reports of widespread damage throughout the Illawarra and damage specifically linked to a tornado moving through Corrimal and Bellambi on Saturday evening!
The Wollongong Botanic Garden once again had to shut its gates over the weekend, to allow time for the water to subside and to start yet another huge clean up after more flooding.
Stay safe, Illawarra Flame friends, and if you require help, reach out to the SES on 13 25 00 and be on the look out for any displaced wildlife, which is very likely. Call WIRES on 1300 094 737 for native animal rescues and care – you can find information on assisting wildlife during floods and storms here.
A local garden makes its television debut
Referring to Coledale ecologist Kylie Madden’s bush block as ‘a garden’ feels like a somewhat inadequate way to sum up the result of years of hard work. Her incredible five-acre escarpment block was recently featured on an episode of Gardening Australia. When she bought the block 10 years ago it was a mess of weeds, but after years of dedication and the engagement of a bush regeneration team, the site is now an incredibly beautiful, bio-diverse area, hosting 147 species of fauna.
While the episode is worth watching just to see how beautiful the property looks today, it is even more lovely to learn how Kylie healed the land and the land in turn healed her. Watch the episode here.
Whistling through Winter
The Golden Whistlers have returned to my yard. They’re hard to miss with their beautiful song and the boys with their vibrant yellow, black and stark white colouring.
I usually only see them over winter. As a species, they tend not to move around too much, although some birds in southern Australia will migrate north or to lower altitudes during winter. Not sure if this is what is happening with these particular birds or if they just move through our yard during this time of year as various trees are fruiting. But like clockwork, they turn up as soon as the weather gets cold and flit around with mixed flocks of small birds, there to feast on berries and small spiders and other invertebrates.
Have you seen, or heard, the lovely Golden Whistler at your place? You can learn more about these stunning birds here.
