Pest Control
Pipi, the cat, patrols the orchard and market gardens. She appears all cute like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but we know she's a cold-blooded killer. How? We've found evidence ... mice, rats, and rabbits with their heads gone. We keep on her good side for our safety's sake.
Maybe we could employ other animals to do our pest control for us? Let's think.
We see the loud chatty magpies hanging out in our orchard, and we realise they're watching the compost bin and long grass for mice making a sprint for it.
We look up and watch hawks scoping the hill paddocks from above, swooping down to grab mice in their talons.
Even the herons who hang out with the goats eat mice along with the bugs that the goats kick up.
Sometimes, we see a goat standing very still with a myna bird on their back. The mynas are picking insects out of the goat's hair. It's a kind of outdoor goat nit clinic organised by birds. Or do the goats employ the birds?
Taptaptap tap. The sparrows are snail-smashing. Dropping snails from a height to break their shells. Clever sparrows with good ideas.
It's summer and there's a fly in the house. No worries, all our windows and doors are open, and we have fantails who are brave and highly skilled, acrobatic fliers. They flit in through the french door, we hear their beak snap, it's over for the fly, and the fantail flits out ... but not the way it came in. You'd swear they know our house as well as we do.
We spend so much time protecting our crops from birds. Maybe it's time we let them give us a hand with the pest control. And the cat. Thanks, guys.