Daffodils in the Southern Hemisphere in 2008

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Maggie, Currawongs are a native bird. They are fairly large and are a bird of prey. They are our natives revenge on all the imported bird life that took over for many years. They have adapted well to changes in the landscape and urbanisation. When I was young there were lots of sparrows and starlings about as well as lots of small natives. That is no longer the case because the Currawongs attack their young and eggs. Our area has low numbers of small birds now.
They are not big enough to scare cockatoos and tend to compete with magpies (a good bird) for territory. I have seen them attempting to intimidate the local kookaburras.
It is illegal to shoot them in the ACT and I can't imagine anyone ever eating them!
Anne, I suspected you had a halo but I just thought you collected them as well!

[Lesley Cox]

Is the currawong a very large bird that crashes through the tree tops and looks like a flying bomb? I remember something like that from the Blue Mountains.

Graham, I do like all of these, well, perhaps not the heavily frilled/split ones but certainly all the others. Wish you hadn't mentioned the rugby. The All Blacks played like idiots. Serve them right they lost.

[Lesley Cox]

Not sure from the bird pics, but probably!

[Paul T]

Lesley,

They are relatively similar to our magpies, but a little more streamlined.  I wish they'd do more damage to the Indian Minors and the Starlings, which are breeding prolifically on the north side.  The Minors are only just appearing in my suburb and I am thinking about contacting the Minor Eradication Group to see if I can get a trap from them and try to remove the ones that are setting up here.  We've seen them looking for nesting sites so want to head that off.  For those who are concerned about the trap it is a humane trap which just traps them, then they are taken to the RSPCA for humane euthanasing.  The rate they breed at without intervention is dreadful, and with the Currawongs they can wipe out pretty much all other bird species (and the Currawongs do a good enough job of that just by themselves).

Good luck Graham with working out some way to proof the shadehouses.  I am getting all sorts of damage in the garden this year that I haven't had before that I have been putting down to starving parrots, but now I am wondering if it is currawongs.  Flowerheads being snipped off hellebores, then the stamens etc being removed.  I had thought it was either parrots or possums, but now I am wondering.  Why would the currawongs target them though?  I know they're scavengers, but what possible interest would daffodils etc hold?

[Gerdk]

Paul,
Do you have a Latin name for the ' Indian Minors ' ? Can't find anything via Google.

Gerd

[Roma]

Gerd,

Maybe Paul means Indian Mynah birds.  They used to be popular as pets because they are good talkers but I don't know if they are around much now. 

[Lesley Cox]

Indian myna or mynah - Acridotheres tristis. Clasified as one of the world's most invasive bird species. Prevelant in huge parts of Asia, and from Egypt to Kazakstan. Major problem in Australia and becoming one in northern New Zealand.

[Paul T]

I knew at the time I wrote it that it looked wrong, but didn't realise it was THAT wrong!   Yes, it should be mynah.  Obviously had a brain freeze at the time.  Sorry.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Unfortunately the main Keira Bulbs computer went down last Sunday due to Vista throwing a wobbly. The problems have not been sorted out yet so the back-up computer has been brought on-line.
Indian Mynahs have started to move into Pialligo so I suspect they will become a major pest before long.
I had more photos to post last Sunday so there is some catching up to do as I also have photos from today.
I will start with some superb tiny flowers from our dry program. We have a lot of flowers out much earlier than normal.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Some of these photos show some of Keira Bulbs standard breeding miniatures. Petals are thin because of their cyclamineus parentage but they have plenty of substance and texture in their petals. One desirable feature of these seedlings besides their diminuitive size is the fact that the perianth stands at right angles to the trumpet. They have been crossed with flowers with better petal coverage from the earlier posting.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A few more photos.
The pot photos will be best viewed if you click on them. They will give you a good idea of just how small the flowers and stems are.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A couple of pot photos.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
A few more photos.

[Maggi Young]

Bless these micro minis... they are barely visible to the naked eye, aren't they?  I suppose the large flowered mini in the center of the "pot of miniatures" has an out of scale flower and is not so desirable for your purposes, Graham? It is very cute though!!

[Paul T]

Graham,

Some very cool flowers in there.  Love the first 4 you posted, but pretty much all of them as usual are glorious.  I think the "pot of miniatures" is very cool.  Would love to have that flowering here at my place!!    I too like the larger on in it, although that tiny one at the bottom of the photo is pretty special too, but then so are all that you've posted tonight.

Thanks for the most enjoyable pics.