I spent all yesterday hanging in trees, trying out the new tree climbing gear. It is definitely less sketchy than my tall ladder for installing all but very low, small sized nest boxes & possum guards. The gear is designed for hanging about at heights totally hands free. Set up and use solo too, no extra help is needed. However it takes much more time and effort to set up than my tall ladder.
The middle photo shows the max height I can install nest boxes using my ladder, vs the box installed on the same tree yesterday using tree climbing kit.
I’ll not be installing all the boxes with rope only access, however we have Gang Gang Cockatoos and King Parrots in the region that won’t consider a hollow unless it is 9 (GG) or 10 (K) meters, or higher. That’s way too high to risk a ladder fall in my mind, climbing safety gear is absolutely necessary.
With rope-installed nest boxes, I can’t monitor the nest boxes as thoroughly to discover & fix any issues. I can change out 10-15 wildlife camera cards & batteries in an hour or less after a windy couple of days (causes full cards & flat batteries) for the ladder installed boxes, but this would take more than a whole day with tree climbing gear to scale 10-15 trees! Nest box monitoring is an important part of ensuring nesting success for us. So I’ll be keeping plenty of ladder accessible nest boxes for species that are less fussy.
The view from higher up is a nice reward.
It’s good to have found a worthwhile use for skills learnt during years of trad rock climbing.