Pool Party

I placed a water dish under a prickly hakea shrub and then set up a trail camera to see if it was used. It was a revelation! I have footage of Eastern Spinebills, White-browed Scrubwrens, Superb Fairywrens, Brown Thornbills and Grey Fantails. I didn’t even know some of those ever visited my garden.

And of course there was a Blackbird (Turdus merula) that hopped right up to the camera and looked at it.

My favourite clip is this one of an absolute party by some thornbills (Acanthiza pusilla) and a grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa)

I was particularly pleased to see White-browed Scrubwrens. In my street where gardens are paltry and lawns are manicured kikuyu grass, my house with its wild assemblage of native plants is a bit of an island, so I was delighted that these birds with a preference for thick understorey saw fit to enjoy my shrubbery.

The camera trap also revealed the presence of another creature in the garden: Rattus rattus – the introduced so-called Black Rat (which is usually grey or brown). I caught a few in a rat trap but the family will survive, of that I am sure.

It is very gratifying to see fauna using my garden space. It helps me recognise that we are participants in an ecosystem, not isolated egoists.