There’s nothing more thrilling than witnessing local wildlife in your own backyard and having your camera ready just at the right time.
I feel so blessed to be surrounded by an abundance of striking bird life that colours my day and cuddly, wide-eyed possums that come out at night. I might even be lucky enough to see a koala, though not in my actual backyard, yet only a few suburbs away if I happen to be there at the right time. (Unfortunately, due to urban development encroaching on their habitat, with the threat of dogs and disease there appears to be a lot less koalas in our local area).
In order to attract more wildlife to our backyards or patios we need some things that would be a part of their natural habitat. It can be as simple as providing water, a clump of native grasses in a corner, a pile of sticks or small logs for shelter, a birdhouse, and perhaps a possum house in a tree. Even people that live in high-rise buildings or apartments can do their bit to help the ecological balance by planting the right plants from their balconies providing natural habitat for birds and butterflies.
For native birds there needs to be the right kind of trees or shrubs for them to feed. We can do this by sourcing native plants from our nearest nursery. For example if you wanted to attract more lorikeets you would need to plant grevilleas and if your yard was big enough a eucalypt tree could attract up to 30 of them.
To provide shelter for lizards you can put a pile of sticks in a corner and grow a native vine over it and this would most likely attract small birds such as finches and wrens. Creating a pond will encourage native frogs to visit your garden and provide a place for them to live and breed if the correct conditions are created.
No matter what part of the world you are from you can find out from your local nursery which plants or trees you need to plant in order to attract more wildlife as well as visiting the library for any guide books. It’s important to remove anything hazardous that you think could harm them such as garden poisons. Most importantly of all, keep your cats inside at night. Cats are a great threat to wildlife, especially smaller species.
So even in our own backyards all it takes a bit of research and time to attract the wonder, colour and excitement of these beautiful animals that share our world that make it such a rich and diverse place.
This is a fantastic post - it really shows that through just a little effort and proactive thinking, you can create the environment that you want in your life.