There is a major force that influences the design and management of my garden and plants.
Here is a photo of it taken in stealth at night using only available light (so the photo is pretty blurry). Can you see what it is?
Here is another photo taken on another day, with a flash, from a different angle.
Yes. It's a possum with no head.
Why does it look like it has no head?
Because it is a possum with so little fear (or so little sense) it will wedge its head inside my bird feeder to steal the seed........even while I am standing nearby taking flash photos!
Actually, there are several possums who come to visit, and they didn't stop at the bird feeder. They rather liked many of my plants - both decorative and edibles.
These are brushtail possums which are about the size of a cat. However they do not have the agility of a cat - they make a lot of crashing and thumping sounds as they jump and climb on things. They also make a lot of noise calling, hissing, and grunting.
Both last year and this spring I have seen babies clinging onto a female - and then later see them following her - a very cute sight. As a species they are not known to be very social creatures but if their habitat is too crowded, females especially will stay together and I think that is what is happening here because I often see more than one adult together at a time and many in a night.
Accomodation may be limited in this environment, but the large numbers of pets in nearby houses don't seem to be a problem to them. And they certainly have enough to eat, from all the gardens around, pet food left outside, as well as the native plant leaves that they are supposed to be eating for a healthy diet!
Stay tuned for later posts to read about my adventures trying to protect my plants from these marauding marsupials.....
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