We have had a sweltering three days with one more to go. With trepidation I looked in on the Crimson Rosella family nest box, to find two of the three chicks had perished. The smallest chick is clinging to life with no visible heat damage, goodness knows if it has suffered developmental damage from the extreme heat. It still has one more extremely hot day to survive.
With all fingers crossed that they had escaped in time, I checked on the Eastern Rosella family nest box. Relief, at the sight of an empty box with a few broken feather pieces. At least they didn’t cook inside the hot wooden box. Their chances are better as mobile fliers, able to seek out shady trees.
Who knows how our three sitting wood ducks are faring, if their eggs are still viable, if their ducklings will hatch. Any day now for the first sitting of the three.
The flying youngsters are all doing well despite the heat. Not happy about the conditions, but I see them about each morning and evening when home.
Late season nesting is a risky business in locations with very hot summers like ours.
Our two new Rosella families, the Crimson Rosellas and Eastern Rosellas are doing well. The Crimson family have three young chicks, and the Eastern family has four now fully feathered chicks to keep them busy. Mother Eastern Rosella looks a bit thread-bare compared to her dapper mate, but all chicks and parents look to be in good health despite the heatwave over the past fortnight.
Three weeks ago we had a large amount of rain. Three new pairs of Wood Ducks have laid eggs and are now sitting, one in a Wood Duck box, and two in Boobook Owl boxes. The nest box where the ducklings hatched was vacant for less than a week. The next family cleaned out the eggshells and started laying immediately. I’d better get cracking on making more floating duck islands in our dam, there are many foxes about that would enjoy duckling dinner.
My current possum protection strategies to prevent Brushtail Possums and Sugar Gliders from raiding the nest boxes appear to be working. No new raids since making the newest sets of modifications. That’s a win for sure.
The Kookaburra chicks, the White-Throated Tree Creeper chick and the two sets of Crimson Rosella chicks have each left the safety of their nest boxes to venture into the world. There are several raucous green Crimson Rosella juveniles careering through the woodland in the mornings and late afternoons. During the heat of the day their strange squeaky voices emit from within the cover of denser foliaged plants like the big native cherry tree out the back and a Cootamundra wattle planted near our house.
The Kookaburra family are also doing well, we hear the cackling of the two young Kookas some days but not others as their range passes through several properties. Three chicks became two once they left the safety of their nest box. It appears that the same parent feeds the one chick all day, which is a great way to ensure equality of food sharing. Mum and dad are looking incredibly thin and tired. Feeding two hungry youngsters clearly is more than enough work for them!
I cleaned out the two used Rosella boxes. Deep stinky parrot droppings wriggling with maggots surely wouldn’t be good for future occupants, if they choose to move in soon. There are new pairs of Rosellas checking out the occupied and empty boxes, however summertime surely is a risky time to be sitting in hot wooden boxes. Temperatures can go into the mid-40’s from January.
Just for any new readers, we have installed over 20 nest boxes for different species, predominantly for birds across our partial woodland 5 acre property. This is the first year we’ve had good success, as possums raided most nesting attempts in the first and second year.
