Gardening days & Birds

Jose returned from Sydney last week, and while he's looking for a job in Perth, he's been busy around the garden, trimming trees, weeding, etc as next week is the Green's verge collection by our local council.

When I arrive from my half day at work we eat lunch and then I join him outdoors.

On Thursday we cleaned up around a small paved area at the back of the garden, where we usually keep the hammock in Summer under the lemon and bottle brush trees.
There were lots of plants in pots, some planted in the garden beds, others were just moved around, the area was cleaned up and now it all looks neater and spacious, ready for warmer days and the hammock 😎 .

The area with all the pots before the cleanup

The cleaned up area where we put the hammock under the lemon and bottle brush trees

Some of my prickly succulents/cacti are on this table and you can see the wagtail below

While we've been gardening a Willie wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys), or sometimes two wagtails will join us in the garden, waiting for a little critter to come out from under one of the pots when we lift them.
They have become quite used to us and expect us to find them some goodies too 😉.

They love the brown cockroaches (Drymaplaneta communis), which are common in the gardens as they feed on organic matter and break up leaf litter.

top right the wagtail is eating a cockroach

They love crickets too, and once when we lifted a bigger pot lots of them jumped out, I put them in a container in the freezer for a couple of minutes, and when the Wagtail came around he was delighted with our offerings. One of them even ate a cricket from Jose's hand, you can see the video below.

They are so cute, jumping around a lot, wagging their tails as if dancing.

Wagtail near my hand

The doves also come to feed on the seeds I put in the feeder and I noticed one of them is back on the nest.
With the tree covered in foliage and full of lemons it's getting difficult for her to reach the nest.

Jose had said to me that the day before a small dove had stood in front of the mirror in the corner of the garden which he was weeding nearby, and while I was out there I noticed the dove by the mirror again. 

Top left - Dove in nest, top right - on top of a pot plant on the table, bottom, on a branch in lemon tree and eating seeds

Dove looking at the mirror

The New Holland Honeyeater birds (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae)  also fleet around from tree to tree feeding on pollen. They are very fast so it can be difficult to capture them on camera.
I wonder if it's mating season, as lots of them fly around from tree to tree as if on a merry go round with a lot of shrieking.

After the cleanup and planting we went to the front garden to pick olives from our now huge olive tree. We picked almost 5kg of olives which will now be cured in changing water for about 1 month before being put into jars with a flavoured brine before they can be eaten.

Our large olive tree, container of olives we picked

Our big pile of "greens" awaiting collection by the Council

The side area by the driveway also needed a bit of weeding and I need to plant a few more succulents to fill the empty space

The sun was setting and it was getting dark when we finished picking the olives, and Jose had also cut a few of the taller branches of the olive tree to add to the pile.

Sun setting

And this is the view to the garden from the kitchen window.

View of garden and patio from my kitchen window

Quite happy with all the work done, it all looks neater now.
The next project is to re-cover the cushions from the patio sofas. I've already bought the fabric that was on sale, so I've just got to get to work on my sewing machine.

Have a lovely weekend 😉.
Linking to Saturday Critters, please check Eileen's blog for more birds and other critters.

                                         
                                               Wagtail eating crickets from Jose's hand (video I posted on Youtube)

                                            While Jose rustles some mulch, the wagtail looks for something to eat