News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 50

Its springtime and besides the kangaroos having their babies the birds also have young still in the nest or the odd couple that are bringing their offspring down to meet us.

However this little magpie wasnt quite ready to leave the nest just yet, but we had a couple of windy days early this week and this one was blown out of the nest.

He still cannot fly, has his down feathers still and no tail feathers that are big enough to help him balance in flight.

So he has been sitting on some logs down near the shed.

He isnt scared of us and actually squawks when we go up to him looking for food. Mum and Dad keep an eye on him from the trees above and we hope they are feeding him. At night we put him in a cat carrier and put him inside to protect him from predators and put him back out early each morning.

We are not feeding him but keeping an eye on the parents to make sure they havent abandoned him. The parents are friendly and come and eat out of our hands so they know we arent a threat to this little bub.

Hopefully he will make it and he will grow up OK.

If the parents abandon it, we will put it into the hands of the Wildlife Rescue and once hes checked out, grown and able to fly he will be released back onto our property.

Ladies do you remember when you were pregnant and felt so cumbersome with the big bump you were carrying around?

Well how about this mumma skippy trying to hop around with a pouch full of one joey?

Poor thing is dragging the pouch along the ground even though bubba is ready to come out of the pouch and hop around on its own.

Bubba is out, as we have video of it bouncing around the back yard finding its feet.

But the comfort and warmth seems it thinks its a better option to snuggle into even though when it climbs back in there is no room to turn around or fully fit in the pouch.

You can see in the photos its back legs and tail hanging out. To get out it has to back out!!!

The joey would be around 9 or 10 months old now.Mumma seems to be staying in our back yard as it would seem trying to hop off down the paddock is a bit of an effort.

Isnt it the cutest little thing?

The other day the neighbour was out in the yard painting tyres and we asked her what she was doing.

She said it was a surprise and even her hubby didnt know what she was doing. Next thing we see hubby is cutting the tyres in half.

We thought possibly she was doing something for the upcoming Community Associations Christmas lights competition as each year they put up a lot of Christmas lights around.

Our Community Association is having its first ever Christmas Lights this year for the residents because of our location, we live just outside of town and with all the main areas in town having their own competition, thought it would be great to have something this end of town.

Weve been busy getting sponsors for prizes and it has everyone around here excited and working on their displays. Anyway back to the tyres. A couple of hours later, the neighbour sent us this photo of her new addition to the garden! We have plenty of carpet snakes around here as we live in a rural area with plenty of bushland so not uncommon to find them around.

They are non venomous and great to keep the vermin (rats/mice) population down. They even find their way into peoples chook pens too. But I dont think this fellow will do much to keep anything down.

Also known as a King Orchid, once again this year my orchid has given me one gorgeous flower. Bit sad that it only produced one this year as last few years it has produced 3 or 4 at a time and looks splendid when there is a few out together.

It has many little flowers off one main long spike and really excites me each year waiting for it to bloom.

Quite easy to grow, mine grows off an old palm tree that is now dead but the orchid has flourished.

They get the morning sun but from around 1 or 2pm are in shade, which apparently is ideal growing conditions for them.

Me being the lazy gardener I am, I dont do anything to it. It gets watered when it rains and gets no special treatment

Hubby was checking the fencing on our property the other day and found this huge egg near the dam in the front yard.

We have been trying to work out what it is.

My first thought was a carpet snake (python) but they usually lay a bunch of eggs with fairly soft shells.

I thought possibly because the egg had dried out the shell may have hardened. But where are the rest of them? Showed the neighbour and she too thought carpet snake.

She took it to give to her grandkids down the road, but they tend to think it is a goose or turkey egg.

Ive not seen goose or turkey eggs that big though. Plus we dont know of any geese or turkeys in the area. My second guess was a goanna egg. We do have some big goannas around here.

So the origin is unknown still but thoughts are that possibly a fox (as we have them in the bush next door) has taken it from somewhere and dropped it in the yard.

Although it is cracked more like something has hatched from it not from getting crunched in a foxs mouth. Whatever laid it mustve been big because its huge. Hopefully we will eventually solve the mystery.