This tiny Spotted Pardalote was recorded in a cottage garden in Agnes Street, just up the road from a huge demolition taking place on Jolimont Street. It was nervously flitting between a branch and a small verandah ledge. The noise from the jack-hammers and diggers was too great to hear or record its call. We were quite concerned that its habitat had been destroyed, but a couple of days later we saw it again in the same garden before it flew next door into a much more protected bushy garden. We can only hope that it lives and thrives with its family without further disturbance. See a video at: https://emhs.org.au/catalogue/emdf0455

The Spotted Pardalote is common throughout eastern and southern Australia. But it's shyness and small size put it in the exotic category for we inner-city dwellers. It nests in narrow lined tunnels in earthen embankments, so life is precarious in our environment, constantly under threat from human development and careless gardening. 

East Melbourne is the very essence of a garden suburb. We are privileged to have a number of huge public gardens such as Fitzroy Gardens, Treasury Gardens and Yarra Park, and also smaller gardens like Powlett Reserve and Darling Square. But our private gardens and well-treed median strips give the whole suburb its garden character and provide homes and shelter for an enormous range of wild-life from the mundane to the exotic.

It is time for the EMHS to start filling one of the gaps in our history with Natural History, recording the flourishing wild-life through the seasons.

Move your mouse over image or click to enlarge