Last week my dog and I were walking at night in a park we don’t usually go to. We were in the dark of the park and some people were walking along the lit path at the edge of the road. I saw a bird fly up from the ground to a tree, scared by the people on the path. I thought to myself “what’s a bird doing awake?” and then I realised it must be an owl or frogmouth. I walked toward the tree he’d flown into. The street lights didn’t reach very close to his tree, so he was very hard to see, but eventually I recognised a tawny frogmouth, still as the branch he sat on, trying to make me think he was part of the tree :) He was only 30cm above my head, and waiting impatiently for me to leave so he could get back to dinner!

I just have to tell you (only because bird people repeatedly tell me this when I get it wrong) that tawny frogmouths aren’t owls. They’re in different families (one of the layers of classification of animals). The two have very diff looking faces – owl’s faces are flatter. There’s a few owls in Perth, but only one type of frogmouth. In other parts of Aust there are other types of frogmouth.

And yes, we need to stop clearing our beautiful suburban bush, and even just 100+ year old tuarts on blocks that are cleared when subdivided.

Re: greenbelts. In Gnangara there is a Bush Forever project which involves corridors of bush with a minimum width of 500m facilitated through landswaps with developers for pine plantations and other previously cleared land. The plan is currently with the State Government and hopefully will be approved, so this land will never(?) be cleared :)

After my unsuccess with comfrey seeds I bought a comfrey plant from my local organic shop Absolutely Organics. Its on North Bch Rd, Gwelup next to the Caltex on the cnr of Karrinyup Rd. I’m not sure if they always have comfrey, but if its near you, ring them on 92427711. if you do go there, check when they’re open coz they’re closed most arvos. At first i had probs with my comfrey plant cos it wasn’t getting enough sun, but now it does and it’s growing nicely. In the past it put up shoots from runners. But since it moved to its new sunny spot it hasn’t yet. the first time it does my friends with chooks (chooks love comfrey) are getting a plant.

I have a few problems with some Diggers seeds, but I’m still a member coz i like their catalogue and the free seeds, some of which grow well, others which don’t. I have great success with their tomatoes – i love their tommy toes. And I planted three other types of free tomatoes this year, so I’m giving away seedlings to everyone i meet :)

I was soooo lucky to see three young frog mouth owls at Houghton Vineyard – perched on a tree branch all huddled up together. Just amazed that I spotted them as they were so well disguised. Needless to say very very excited!

I agree that the bush land around Perth needs saving – how about Green belts? Even an overpopulated tiny country like England still has a lot of countryside left – thanks I suspect to the green belt movement of last century. Seems there might remain a Eurocentric attitude to the ‘bush’ – because it doesn’t look like Sussex or Oxford not many people seem to care that it is constantly being flattened to build housing estates.

There’s a number on the empty block a few doors down from me, they go into surrounding gardens (and cross the road :( to one garden they really like). My neighbour and I both have dogs that bark at them when they see them, but the neighbour’s dog is obviously less scary coz the bobtails go to their garden and not mine (and I grow native plants to try to attract them). Luckily for me my neighbours are terrified of bobtails and I have to go in and rescue the little fellow when they find one in their garden. I put him back on the empty block. He’s terrified and wants to bite me, but holding him behind the head stops that, but he does twist his tail toward his mouth as if he’s going to bite that (which is probably just a way to make himself smaller and less of a meal for a predator). I rescued one last week and I so wanted to make friends, but when I put him on a brick in the long weeds he didn’t move coz he was still terrified. I had to leave so he could calm down.

My other neighbour said he’d seen one 60-70cm long and I didn’t believe him, but I guess I have to now :) I’ve never seen them that big, only up to about 30cm.

When a bobtail opens his mouth wide on a dog trying to attack, the dog will always back off! It even scares me at an instinctual level, but I know its all bluff and if I quickly grab him from behind he can’t bite me.

But I don’t recommend handling them, coz if you’re not sure of what you’re doing you could get bitten.

And yes scabs in summer is the place for bobtails, snakes, bearded dragons, and monitors. The bush reserves near the beach eg. Trigg and Star Swamp are full of them. I was very happy when I found this Gould’s monitor at Star Swamp.

Kara, I think you should get some pine bark mulch and see if you can grow your own morels. I put the pine bark mulch on my garden in November last year, so now’s the time to do it!