Integrated pest management is the process of aiming to manage your garden like an ecosystem… and balancing the bad with the good. In simplest terms, its about creating favorable conditions for ‘good bugs’ that eat and/or mitigate the ‘bad bugs’, and encouraging other useful animals (like small birds) to hang out in the garden and do your caterpillar control for you.
I went down to the bean patch in the middle of the garden to pick some beans for dinner the other day, and look what I found…
This is a silvereye’s nest. Silvereyes are one of the many types of small birds that flit in and out of our garden constantly, and prettymuch treat it like home. The bean patch is a favorite spot for them – its tall green corridors are cool, and the dense foilage is just what the small birds like best to flit back to for protection.
I tried hard over the last couple of days to take you a photo of said silvereye sitting on her nest, but whenever I got close, she was off in a flash.
Such is the downside of photographing with an iphone rather than a sneaky telephoto lens. And i didn’t want to disturb her too much, so just take my word for it – she was definitely a silvereye. I grew up with silvereyes on the coast and I’m very happy that they live out west in the high hills with me also. They were my favorite bird when I was growing up.
Small birds like silvereyes, scrub wrens, fairy wrens and the like love shelter close to where they feed, so if you’re aiming for integrated pest management in your vege garden, plant things like grevillias or hedges of whatever makes sense close to your patch, for year round caterpillar and bug control at its most beautiful.
What a beautiful little jewel to find in your patch! You’ve inspired me to plant that grevillea/kunzea hedge I’ve been talking about… Thanks!
I love that you know the names of your local birds. We have a lovely little local bird that I have dubbed the “creaky gate bird” as it’s call reminds me of a creaky gate. It’s small, black and white and looks like a pint sized willy wag tail. I reckon it would make a great pest manager if I could just find out its name and then build it a habitat.
There is a website BirdsinBackyards which has a good bird identifying facility. Easy to use and with lots of info.
There’s something spell binding about the colours of those eggs.
The little ‘creaky gate bird’ may be a Grey Fantail but it might be a good idea to ask the local bird club people. They love if anyone is interested! And it might be fun!
Maree, THANK YOU! You have identified our little bird in one go and I am excited to know both its name and that it is insectivorous so it will indeed become part of our pest management team! 😀 You have made my day.
make sure you keep calling it the creaky gate bird though! love that.
I will be! Grey fantail is such a drab name for a very sweet pretty and funny little bird. And I am glad they are common too as our larger up the chain pest management (cats) look at them the same way they look at the other further up the chain pests (mice).
Little garden angels of the feathered kind 🙂
The 3 eggs hatched yesterday and the mum is feeding the chicks with many insects from the garden, flying around and collecting everything she can find within a 30m radius of the nest. Michael.
A chorus of “aww” from my kids….beautiful, well done!
We are travelling Oz and I miss the grounding and peace of my garden, so your newsletters are a blessing. Thank you!
Enjoy the grand adventure!
Reblogged this on X_trous Notes.
Yes, I noticed so many instances of various wasps stinging caterpillars and dragging them off into holes in the ground. There seem to be lots of predator insects around and all we have so far is a shade cloth area in front of the house where I keep all my herbs and grafted apple trees, berries and flowers, awaiting autumn, rain, and time to plant them out when we finally get around to building a garden and orchard. I have my favourite little birds, Fairy Wrens, among many others playing around in that area also – and eating bugs. It’s… Read more »
I have a great bee and bird attracting plant that flowers all winter in the Sydney climate. Those attracted are small long billed nectar eating birds and Rainbow Lorrikeets. These ‘Salvia’ plants grow very fast, mostly evergreen and make a great privacy screen. I have propagated around 30 on their ownroots and would donate them to be used at Milkwoods next workshop.
Reblogged this on EMpression and commented:
I wrote about finding and decorating birds’ nests a little while back. I loved this photo and I love Milkwood they are always up to the most interesting things.