welcome wildlife

Simo · **Posted:** Thu Mar 07, 2013 2:58 pm

Faye wrote:

Build it and they will come Simo.

On a night time stroll throught the vegie patch I disturbed my organic pest control hard at work.

gazza · **Posted:** Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:32 pm

Just chilling in the mango tree

Faye · **Posted:** Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:33 am

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Just looking out over the pond and contemplating. The others were chilling on lily pads, about 7 all up and that was justbthat pond. Another night we counted 17 around the tank in the vege garden.

Simo · **Posted:** Tue Apr 09, 2013 11:40 am

I built some wildlife habitats with the kids on the w/end first two picture are obviously of the bird house (sorry for picture quality) but who wants to take a guess at what critters I hope will be living the the third picture?

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Bender · **Posted:** Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:16 pm

Batman?

Awesome work Simo. Will be interested to hear what moves in

Charlie · **Posted:** Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:17 pm

Hey Gaz, what type of frog is that? Looks like the one I found in our yard.

Simo · **Posted:** Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:22 pm

Yeah, not holding my breath on attrcting any bats, I had some move into an old hessian sag hung upside down in a farm shed once, principle is the same, I will just keep looking for bat scat under entrance. Might take a few years, might never happen, important thing is my daughter feels pride looking at it knowing she built it with me and she might learn to appreciate the benifits of a diverse eco system too.

gazza · **Posted:** Tue Apr 09, 2013 5:57 pm

Charlie wrote:

Hey Gaz, what type of frog is that? Looks like the one I found in our yard.

Pretty sure they are motorbike frogs (named after what they sound like) There was some good info here: http://museum.wa.gov.au/frogwatch/ but the link doesn't seem to be working correctly at the moment.

Just google pictures motorbike frogs.

Burnsy · **Posted:** Tue Apr 09, 2013 9:36 pm

Nice work Simo, are the bird houses made by drilling the sticks and threading onto wire?

Peasants · **Posted:** Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:06 pm

Fabulous! And I'm sure your kids have benefited hugely, as well as the wildlife.....now and in the future!

Simo · **Posted:** Wed Apr 10, 2013 11:10 am

Burnsy wrote:

Nice work Simo, are the bird houses made by drilling the sticks and threading onto wire?

I got the idea from here:

http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/better-ho ... ird-house/

But didn't think sticks glued to a metal mailbox would last very long and also might be a bit hot for the birds in summer so instead I made a full wooden bird house from scrap pine then had the kids collect sticks which were cut to length, drilled to prevent splitting and the kids helped nail them onto the timber bird house with very fine long nails.

I like your idea of a wire frame with the sticks wired to it, would be very long lasting anprovide good ventilation too!

Simo · **Posted:** Sat May 11, 2013 9:32 am

I realised that I didn't have any bird baths so I built some, first one was made by sealing the domed end of an old truck exhaust water heater, twisting copper pipe around and adding a float valve.

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Second one is a large terracotta pot plant base held by a purpose built metal stand attahed to an old tree stump with old galv tin hopper upside down as a decoration.

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I didn't get a photo of the third one.

gazza · **Posted:** Sat May 11, 2013 10:32 am

Nice use of materials Simo!

Simo · **Posted:** Thu May 30, 2013 1:03 pm

Third and favorite birdbath here, should do fo now unless I get some more inspiration.

Bender · **Posted:** Thu May 30, 2013 9:26 pm

Very artistic simo. Love your use of recycled materials. Is that an eremophila below the third bird bath?

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