A lovely day for a drive in the country.
On the left is our land. We had to do some mowing and weeding, and check on the bees.
There are a few plants flowering at the moment. This is a goodenia:
And this is something you really don't want to see:
Bluebell creeper,
Billardiera heterophylla (formerly
Sollya heterophylla). Unfortunately the neighbours on either side are doing nothing to control it, and each has huge thickets of it on their properties. We pull up small plants, and treat larger ones with weedkiller, but with the good weather this year and the constant supply of seed from neighbouring properties, it is hard to keep it under control.
While treating weeds I noticed this bird keeping two eyes on me:
It is a tawny frogmouth,
Podargus strigoides. They are fantastic birds, and it was exciting to see it, and a second one in another tree. Are they are pair? Are they breeding here? We can hope.
The bees are not doing well. One hive is queenless and therefore dying out. The other has brood, but almost no honey stored. There just must not be enough food for them in the area.
They will have to come back to the city, and soon. Moving them at this time of year won't be easy as the days are so long, but if they are going to survive, they need food. They should be storing honey at this time of year so that they can survive through winter.
1 comment:
It's so difficult when neighbours don't control noxious weeds on their properties. I love tawny frogmouths; we get an occasional visits from them but they are just passing through our corner of suburbia. How sad for the bees?
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