Wildlife Autumn 2007 (spring wildlife Down Under)

[Anthony Darby]

Sorry Lesley, these are youngsters, as the 3' x 2' slabs indicate. The 'wheelbarrow' is a recliner chair. I was just giving an indication of max size. When I lived in Huddersfield and visited a farm on a primary school outing my friends were gobsmacked at the size of cows. They'd just assumed that all farm animals were the size of sheep.

[mark smyth]

I've seen a nice lawn destroyed by badger snuffle holes. The householder didnt know what caused it. A badger latrine in a garden isnt something anyone would ever want.
http://www.badgers.org.uk/badgerpages/pictures/meles-scrape-2.jpg

[Martin Baxendale]

A badger latrine in a garden isnt something anyone would ever want.
http://www.badgers.org.uk/badgerpages/pictures/meles-scrape-2.jpg

Too right, Mark! I'll never forget the first time I went to fill in a hole where the badger had decided to have a nice pooh. Thought I'd check the bottom of the hole for bulbs and found something else!!    What a stink! And the quantity!!! After plunging your hand unexpectedly into badger pooh, finding cat pooh in your beds is a delight (almost!)

Carlo, if I had a really big garden I'd also be happy to live with badgers (and foxes) digging in the remoter corners. But when your main bit of garden is just 10m X 30m a full-grown badger can make a soul-destroying mess of it over the course of a year of nightime visits. I'd never have tried to hurt the old brock in any way, but I thought it fair game to try to divert him around my garden by blocking his routes - didn't work of course!   

[Carlo]

....As I said, naive and romantic.

Oddly enough the most serious burrowing pest (in terms of plant destruction) was a TURTLE! While I was at the botanical garden we had a large female snapping turtle climb to the top of a scree bed to lay her eggs. She dug, tossing plants and labels aside with impunity. Soon, of course, she hit rock and could go no further. So forward she went and dug again. Same result, same response. This poor dear dug a trence about 20 feet long looking for a suitable spot to deposit her treasure. Ultimately she crossed the path, hunkered down in the cactus and succulent bed (essentially sand), and relieved herself of her load. That's where I found her first thing in the morning.

We had the fix the uphill damage before opening, but I left her and the future generation alone.

[Anthony Darby]

Not a problem we have in the UK Carlo. In Scotland we only have three native reptiles and they are all live bearers.

[Lesley Cox]

Well heavens! All my illusions about the "charm" of badgers are shattered. I'll be happy to see them on the Forum and elsewhere, but am pleased at last, we don't have them here. Plenty of problems with possums whose poo is like that of rabbits, small, round, very firm and easily (and cleanly) disposed of, if need be.

You have to admire the determination (instinct, I suppose) of the turtle. Presumably what your Point is named for Carlo. Where is that exactly?

[Carlo]

Turtle Point (for Lesley and anyone else even remotely interested) is about an hour outside New York City in the Hudson Highlands...

[Maggi Young]

Not good enough, Carlo, we need spoonfeeding here, remember.... so, an hour outside NY... North, South, West?    Highlands suggest North, but there isn't always a clue!

Hudson... Hudson River, right? Geography not my strong point, what can I tell you 

[Carlo]

It would be north and a little west...just a few miles north of the New Jersey border. I'm surrounded (more or less) by Harriman State Park and Sterling Forest...and on the shores of Tuxedo Lake.

Sorry...no GPS coordinates.

[Lesley Cox]

State Park, a forest and a lake just an hour from NY city? Sounds EXACTLY like Dunedin, pop. 110,000

[Carlo]

But for the fact that this is NYC and 11,000,000...

[Carlo]

Speaking of Dunedin, Lesley, there are some great gardens down your way to tell us about.

Isn't there a rock garden of note there? It should make its way onto my list.

[Lesley Cox]

There are some very good gardens here Carlo, so if you're planning to visit us sometime, I'd recommend the private gardens of Dick King, Gavin and Daphne Clarke, and several others. Then there's the garden at Larnack Castle and as you mention, the rock garden in the Dunedin Botanic Garden is very good, the best public rock garden in NZ.

Nothing much at my place except heaps of pots at present, and we don't have a spare bed but could arrange something and I'd certainly want to give you dinner.

[Lesley Cox]

It just occurred to me that you probably meant your list of gardens to visit, on your website. In which case, I'll talk to someone about it, maybe get something to you.
Sorry to be so dense.

[Carlo]

Well I am trying to make the list (of the world's best rock gardens) a bit more representative--and the southern hemisphere is woefully under-represented. Thanks in advance.