New Year Nestboxing

I've just returned from a beautiful piece of bushland not far from Margaret River in WA's south-west, where I spent a couple of days with my partner Dani installing nest-boxes designed for a variety of wildlife. Putting a new pulley and new hand ascender (Christmas presents!) straight into action for the first tree-climbing job of the new year helped us install the thirteen boxes more efficiently, with the pulley being a welcome addition to the normal hauling rig used to hoist my large vertical Black Cockatoo boxes (of which there were five) into place.

The picture at the top of this post shows how the 3-1 pulley system is set up on one of the cockatoo boxes, which was positioned in a very tall, old, but hollow-lacking Marri tree. And above is a slightly wider shot of the same box (and the two tiny ants installing it!), taken by the property owners Karen and Rob, whose wonderful enthusiasm to help her local fauna I had to thank for being here in the first place. One of the most rewarding things about my job is getting to meet the growing number of people going out of their way to engage with and provide support to native wildlife, a truly positive edge to our currently testing environmental times. As with all my nest-boxes, these hollow-homes will be closely monitored to help gather information about how effective they are, particularly in helping threatened species like Black Cockatoos, which have been very successful in my large vertical boxes. I can't wait to hear about the first occupants in this latest batch of boxes!

Room with a view: one of the cockatoo boxes overlooking a scenic lake near Margaret River.