Today I was lucky to visit a beautiful bush block in Mundaring and install 2 nest boxes. It was extremely special because the owner of the block used to do fitness class with me many years ago when I was in high school, and we have bumped into each other many times in the local community since. Susan also works as a teacher at Parkerville Primary School, and we did a talk to her class as part of a nest box workshop conducted back in 2012.
Both nest boxes were large sizes designed for Black Cockatoos. Susan has resident Forest Red-tails in her area often, so is hoping to encourage breeding of this threatened species. Thee odds are good, as we know this design has worked for other black cockatoo species before, including Carnaby's Cockatoos in the Porongurups. We also had a pair of Red-tails lay an egg inside one of my nest boxes installed on another hills bush block in 2012 (the egg was subsequently abandoned, we think because Galahs drove the birds away). You can read more about that story here.
Here are a couple more photos of the boxes going up. Thanks to Susan for taking the pictures and allowing me to use them here :)
 |
| You can see how chain is used to hold the box up, and it is threaded through recycled hosepipe to protect the tree's bark. |
 |
| This Jarrah tree is at least 100 years old but has only tiny natural hollows. |
No comments:
Post a Comment