Suburban Wildlife

It is now late Spring in Melbourne, Australia; the weather has been warmer and we have had far more rain this year than for the last five I would say. The result has been flourishing gardens wherever we look and in those gardens, increasingly more wildlife.
As well as the many bird species that inhabit our garden, we have possums that do nightly runs along the side fence, across the overhead wires and across the roof. The smaller Ringtail possums are cute and do not cause too much trouble except for causing my dog to bark and jump at the fence as they brave the run along it. The Brushtail possums however, are bigger and heavier and sound like they are galloping over the rooftop. Not only that but they, unlike their smaller cousins, do not 'play possum' or stay still hoping danger will pass but they growl and snarl and will fight back if put in a predicament where they have to defend themselves.  Our little dog Monty has received a scratch on the nose on one occasion but he has managed to kill a young Ringtail also. We have resorted to keeping him inside at night because it is just not worth the drama!
Of course there is the matter of them eating the leaves and blossoms of plants; they love the gum leaves on our eucalyptus tree, and they also like to eat the peel off the lemons. Yes, just the peel! So, one finds naked lemons still hanging on the tree or fallen to the ground. I guess they have to find what food they can but lemon peel? If they can digest eucalyptus leaves with their high level of indigestible substances, and phenolic and terpene compounds, they can obviously manage lemon peel!
As well as these larger arboreal animals, we have a small pond which is home to a few very noisy Eastern Banjo Frogs from time to time. They have been calling again every since the weather warmed up and make quite a decent noise. It has been described as a deep bonk sound and when two or more are calling at once they try to outdo each other so their calls all merge into a sound like pobble or pobblebonk! This is also another common name for these ground dwelling frogs; Pobblebonk. 


Now I love all this wildlife but what I find most fascinating is the smaller inhabitants of the garden; butterflies, caterpillars, moths, bees, wasps, beetles, spiders and one of my favourites simply because they are so hard to find and are amazing insects are the  Praying Mantids/Mantis. It is far easier to say or write mantids than mantises so I find mantid works better and both are interchangeable. 

This Spring I have found several praying mantid nymphs in my Hydrangea bushes and have been checking on them each day since. I would love to see them remain there and be able to watch their growth and development but realise there are many things that could prevent this coming to fruition. After all, the garden is a dangerous place for a small insect as there are many predators that would find a young mantid nymph a tasty snack! I know there are at least three salticidae (jumping) spiders in the same bushes and many more around the garden so I will just have to hope that my babies are clever at hiding and fast at escaping! The main photo shows one of the nymphs hiding between some leaves so they clearly have intuitive survival skills from the time they emerge from their ootheca (egg case)