Noogoora Burr in Trephina Gorge...

A friend of Garden for Wildlife was visiting Trephina Gorge this weekend when she came upon another unwelcome weed.

Noogoora Burr, Xanthium occidentale. Trephina Gorge. Image by Jane Addison.

This is an invasive species from America which can cause contact dermatitis in humans and livestock and can be mildly toxic to livestock when it is younger.

It spreads along watercourses and is already well established through parts of WA and the Top End river systems.

For more information visit - http://www.weeds.org.au/cgi-bin/weedident.cgi?tpl=plant.tpl&ibra=all&card=H24

Mexican Poppy - be on the alert!

We have had word from some property owners that these invasive weeds are turning up unexpectedly. Often the culprit is river sand. You'll need to be careful if you're doing construction work around your home, or if you employ someone else to do it, that river sand is not used as a convenient building product for concreting etc. This is the most common way of spreading weeds like the Mexican Poppy.

A great photo story about Grey-crowned Babblers courtesy of Dave Price...

Grey-crowned Babblers (Juwayikirdi in Warlpiri) nest communally. First you find your materials.

They have to be high quality but cheap, from where ever you can find them.

Including from a recently vacated Magpie lark's nest if you can get away with it.

Recycling is the name of the game, or is it looting?

Then you've got to get it all up to the construction site, waiting in line for your mates to finish their bit and get out of the way.

There's always someone who wants to be foreman, or is that site manager, giving orders from down below.

This is actually an annual renovation. This nest is several years old. The tree is next to our drive way and not far from our bedroom window.

They will be our alarm clock for the next several months. Funny they've picked the day Yasi decides to drop in all the way from north Queensland to renovate the nest. They are obviously owner/builders and don't have a union to stop their workers on wet days. There's no BBLF.

I spoke too soon, even for owner/builders the rain just gets to be too much to take sometimes. Yasi is adversely effecting production in our part of the world as well.

Or is this just smoko?

All images and text - Dave Price. Reproduced here by kind permission.

Welcome!

G'day everyone and welcome to your new Garden for Wildlife blog. This is going to be one more way that you can stay up to date with the very latest projects that the Garden for Wildlife team are working on.

As the site gets built you'll have access to more information, fact sheets, and links to all the most useful websites for your own Garden for Wildlife projects.

Send us your queries about plants and wildlife in your gardens and we can get our team of experts to answer your questions here for the benefit of all our members.

Cheers.

This is an Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly and recently turned up in Alice Springs, probably blown in on Cyclone Yasi.