welcoming birds and insects to the garden

One way of welcoming insects to the garden is to make or buy a special insect house. It provides a place where insects can go when it's rainy or cold, to shelter and lay their eggs. Insect eggs hatch when the temperature and climate are right. Some insects lay their eggs on leaves of plants so the young can have a supply of food when they hatch. Others, like solitary native bees and wasps, like to lay their eggs somewhere safe from predators, and sheltered from the weather. So far no bees or wasps have used of this particular house, because I would have heard them buzzing. But there is webbing there, so it has been used already by some creatures.

The way to welcome birds is to provide a variety of plants for food and shelter - tall trees, with a dense under- storey of plants to provide shelter and safety for small birds. The other way is to provide them with clean water for drinking and bathing. The video shows some Magpies using the bird bath. Other birds that have come regularly lately, are Pied Currawongs,  Little Wattlebirds and Pigeons. I have also seen - and heard - chittering flocks of tiny insect eating birds in the garden, such as various species of Thornbills. But only once, on a very hot day, did they use the bird bath. 

Butterflies need water too, but it needs to be in a very shallow bowl. Planting butterfly attracting plants is the best way to attract butterflies. If they flower at different times the butterflies may stay long enough to breed. I've planted a little group of Bursaria spinosa, a plant indigenous to this area, and supposedly a magnet for butterflies. They haven't flowered yet, but hopefully soon there'll be more butterflies in the garden and more different species.

Bursaria spinosa

Heteronympha merope - Common Brown Butterfly

Photographing a dead insect certainly makes it easier to capture the details. Common Brown butterflies are native to Australia. This butterfly is a male - you can tell by the markings on the wings. One generation of these insects are completed each year. The butterflies emerge in mid-spring, but the females are inactive until mid-summer. By late summer the males are all dead and only the females are still alive. So it seems likely that this particular butterfly died a natural death.