Sharing Our Land

I read on Rohnda's blog Down to Earth a comment about even though we may own land it is not entirely ours, we share it with other living things, like birds, reptiles, and insects. This got me thinking about my half an acre and what I share my land with, just of the top of my head I know I have a number of little skinks (who I havent managed to get pics of because they move so quickly) many who drop their tails when they are attacked, there are spoggies that live in the date palm, there are Murray magpies, native doves, and crested pigeons (we call them toppies), normal magpies, galahs, corellas, and I have seen a couple of times a rather large green grass parrot (probably a bit bigger than a rosella)

A few months ago I had a pair of Sleepy lizards stay with me for a few weeks, they made a cosy hole in my shade house and would wonder about the garden during the day. The first time I saw them they scared the crap out of me, I went to check on the chooks and heard a rusting in the dried leaves, but not like a scuttling little skink rustle, more like what I thought was a snake rustle. It turned out to be a large sleepy that I had scared and it was trying to get away and hide. Now I pretty much grew up in the city so never had to deal with snakes and I'm well aware that where I am now is brown snake territory and especially living on the size block that I have, refusing to clear and poison every single weed and keep a perfectly neat and tidy garden, leaving water out for birds and lizards, and having chooks means that there is a fairly good chance that I am going to one day share my yard with a snake of some description, but they do frighten me and I secretly hope that they stay away (or at least stay somewhere where I don’t know about them and am not likely to unexpectedly step on them)

There is a possum around somewhere, I occasionally hear it jump onto the roof with a rather large thump, and it ate my 3 plums

The flocks of galahs, and corellas live in the trees nearby, and go out in the morning to feed throughout the day and then return at night. They make a huge racket both when they are leaving in the morning and when they return at night, my cockatiel often gets into trouble because being a small parrot and a flock bird will "call out" to the others, (she hasn’t realised she is not a galah, or a corella, or a human for that mater) only us humans call it screeching, a very high pitched loud call which gets very annoying very quickly, especially when it is inside.

There are a number of kites that glide around looking for food on the ground below.

And then there is the thousands of flies, spiders and other insects which I would rather found someone else's yard to call their home.

Here is a picture of a couple of galahs in the gum tree next door the other night (it didnt come out too clear because the sun had almost gone down).

And a flock of correllas last night,

And as they took off (there were three kites flying around down the road)

What creatures share your yard, and how do you encourage them?