Autumn ducklings

Posted on by Alice McGlashan

Wow, what a start to a day.

On Tuesday morning I just happened to see the final three ducklings jump out of their nest box from our back verandah using binoculars, after noticing dad bolt from the dam to the nest box tree. Six in total. Our last Wood Duck family for the season. Autumn ducklings. 

Then they scooted quickly off to a neighbour’s dam. 

Meanwhile there is a semi-resident Wood Duck family with three teenage ducklings at our dam most days. They are the survivors of the nest box families of eight, or nineteen ducklings. There is another family of seven ducklings about that I saw three weeks ago, all fingers and toes are crossed for them. Wood Duck families appear not to like sharing small dams such as ours. Ideas for next Spring anyone?

Our two nest box Kookaburra bubs are becoming more independent catching their own frogs etc, and the young nest box hatched Eastern and Crimson Rosellas are still all doing very well.

My dam-side wildlife cameras recorded quite regular visitation by two foxes over the past three weeks, an old fox and a young fox. The ducklings are sleeping by the dam each night, and are extremely vulnerable untill they can fly.

Few dams in the area have islands. I’ve since made more duck islands for the duckling family to use by night, as they did not like something about the island I made last year that was much used by our first Wood Duck family. It’s a bit like a floating island shanty town now. Our teenage Wood Duck family use one of the new islands some nights, but prefer to take their chances on the ground.

Two weeks ago I set up two soft-jaw foot trap sets on either side of the dam to get the foxes. Yes, these are perfectly legal to use. We’ve had much success previously. Two years ago I trapped and had friendly neighhbours shoot all 6 of our regular visiting foxes over a few months. Neighbours in the same bush patch as ours (surrounded by cleared pasture) reported having heard foxes calling regularly since living here for over a decade, up untill two years ago… It’s been quiet since they say. 

So the efforts made on our property are having much wider benefits to the entire patch of bushland owned by many others. We had no foxes on our property except the very occasional visitor for over a year, wildlife cameras are watching closely.

Last Saturday, and then again on Tuesday… 
Gotcha! One less fox stalking our nest box ducklings that are sleeping at our dam, and nearby neighbourhood dams. Two foxes in three days, that’s a record for me. One each, for the traps set on either side of the dam. Both young recently independent foxes so am still after the older fella. But that’s a big improvement. 

A half-day walk in a local National Park over the past weekend provided a reminder of the severe impact that feral predators can have our native ecosystems. On a 5 km stretch of track, I found two piles of Crimson Rosella feathers, just a couple of hundred meters apart. They’d not been there for long. These are the remains that we saw, probably there were many others well off the cleared track.

Improving habitat for wildlife includes some less fun stuff like feral predator control to be really effective. Planting native plants and watching them attract more birds as they grow, installing nest boxes and seeing new families emerge, these are the fun tasks. 

Trapping and killing feral predators is much less fun, but such an important aspect of land management in Australia. It is an ongoing, never ending task, but absolutely necessary. What hope would our nest box ducklings have otherwise? 

I’ve only found one pile of feathers on our property, two years ago. Apparently our place is safer for birds, than our nearby National Parks where little, if any feral predator control occurs. That is both rewarding for me and also very concerning too.

First Flights and New Lives

Posted on by Alice McGlashan

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.

Growing chicks

Posted on by Alice McGlashan

All the nestlings are doing well and growing fast. They all have feathers, the white-throated tree creeper chick, the two sets of crimson rosella chicks (2 & 3), and the three kookaburra chicks. 

Guess who popped out of our wood duck nest box this Wednesday? Eight gorgeous little wood ducklings! Unfortunately we personally missed all the action, but the wildlife cameras did their job well. All fingers and toes are crossed that they stay safe from foxes, feral and domestic free ranging cats, predatory native birds and more.

Since last post, we have two more nest boxes in use. The third crimson rosella box that was raided by a sugar glider, which I moved to a safer location has since had 6 small speckled eggs laid and the eastern rosella mum is now sitting. She is incredibly shy, and stays well out of sight so no photos of her I’m sorry. I’ve seen her head pop up just the once. There are no trees nearby for a wildlife camera to be installed to watch from a distance unfortunately, part of my glider protection strategy that looks to have been successful. There are also the above and below box polycarbonate plastic possum tree guards installed. The second box newly in use has a crimson rosella sitting on eggs. 

The kookaburra parents fed their babies a juvenile eastern brown snake a couple of weeks ago. The snake was thoroughly dead after being thwacked repeatedly against several tree branches for a good 20 minutes. They are eating all sorts including centipedes, mice, lots of beetles, curl grubs, skinks (lizards) ++ lots of unidentifiables.

The sugar glider boxes are being well loved too. 

Of our occupied nest boxes, 4 nest boxes are in use by two different rosella species, there is the tree creeper family, the now vacant wood duck box, three boxes occupied by ringtail possums, two boxes with sugar glider residents and the kookaburra nest box family. That’s a lot to be happy about!

We’ve installed at least 20 nest boxes around our regenerating woodland property over the past three years, just outside of Canberra.

Chicks and eggs

Posted on by Alice McGlashan

Our Kookaburra family are looking quite frazzled fetching food for their 3 newly hatched and very demanding chicks. Aren’t they cute!! They raised two chicks successfully last year in the same box. Apparently this common species is in decline in our region, the reason is unknown. They do need larger hollows for nesting, which are scarce and in high demand!

Last week the White-throated Treecreepers laid 2 eggs in their box and have been sitting since Wednesday. In between I added possum protection to their box & tree. 

Our 6-egg Crimson Rosella family are still sitting. The second Rosella box had two more eggs laid, they are sitting on 3 eggs (at least). In between the egg laying for the 3-egg family, I added much possum-protection on the box & tree & trimmed nearby small tree branches. Even gliders should find it tricky to access this box!

The 6-egg Rosella family were already sitting so couldn’t be disturbed with the installation of any additional possum protection. The Rosella box that was raided has been abandoned. However, we are doing better than last year with all 5 Crimson Rosella attempts to nest in nestboxes having the eggs raided and nests abandoned. 

The Wood Duck nest is unknown but not raided – no eggs or feathers on the ground. They are quick to take fright & abandon nests so I am staying away. 

Despite scrubbing out the possum’ed boxes, there has been no interest in these. But it may be too late in the season for nesting hollow discovery. Many plans for next year to increase the uptake of nest boxes and prevent them from being raided, but five bird families nesting that wouldn’t have if no boxes, is something to be happy about!