There is much quacking in trees and on the ground around our regenerating woodland property most mornings now, as the local Wood Ducks are congregating at our place to nest.
Checking out our for-Wood Duck nest box.This couple are a fan of our Boobook Owl nest box design.
I have relocated several nest boxes that the Wood Ducks tried to use (and failed for various reasons) last year to new locations all around the property, away from the busy house area. Also one single nest box in use generates less attention from duck egg predators, than three nest boxes on adjacent trees, a problem we had last year also.
The three Black Cockatoo nest boxes are popular with Wood Ducks too. They need very deep bedding, to raise the surface level to about 10cm below the entrance, so the ducklings can get out. Otherwise many can’t escape and die. Yes, learn the hard way year before last.Three is a crowd, this nest box is already taken!The Lookout.
So far, every Wood Duck sized nest box has evidence of Wood Duck interest this year. Fingers crossed, if they all are used, that’s quite a lot of ducklings! Just as well I’ve been hard at work reducing our fox population these past months. Our dam duck islands are getting plenty of use by day, and I think a pair of Woods or Pacific Blacks are sleeping on them by night.
One of my duck island experiments in use, for Wood Duck families to sleep on at night to keep them safe from predators. Our first Wood Duck nest box family in 2017 did just that, from the first night.
I haven’t had a chance to see if any eggs have been laid yet, it’s been a couple of weeks since my last peek. If not yet, it won’t be long now. Winter has been unusually mild here.
Update: we have our first sitting duck of the season, but the others are yet to start laying.
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.
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.
It’s moments like these that make my nest box efforts feel so worthwhile, particularly over the past year.
During the month of January despite two above 40 degree heatwaves, with our local average monthly temperatures being 6 degrees above the long-term average, including four (never previously recorded) consecutive days above 40 degrees, most of the Wood Duck eggs from the two nest boxes successfully developed and hatched as healthy ducklings at the end of last week.
On Saturday morning while checking out a new resident Eastern Brown Snake, I looked out at our dam to see Wood Duck mum, dad, and 19 day-old ducklings following behind! The ducklings had jumped from their nest box on Friday morning according to the wildlife cameras that I rushed to check shortly after. These are from the same nest box as our last successfully hatched clutch of Wood Duck eggs earlier this season. 21 eggs were laid (probably by a couple of females), 19 hatched.
I then discovered that the smaller clutch of Wood Duck eggs had also hatched and abandoned their nest box on Thursday evening according to wildlife cameras. This family came to visit our dam on Sunday afternoon. I had a hunch that this was a first-season nesting family, as the eggs were significantly smaller than other Wood Duck eggs I’ve seen in nest boxes previously. Given dad’s hilariously flighty responses to the falling ducklings (first video), I’d say this was a totally new experience for him!
This is such a rewarding conclusion to the nesting season for our feathered nest box residents.
Some more recent background and learnings:
On December 13th-14th, there were large storms causing significant rainfall resting in flooding for some areas locally. This triggered interest in late-season nesting by several Wood Duck pairs, with the first eggs laid within a few days of this rainfall in three of our nest boxes. One nest box was abandoned before sitting began, however with a full clutch of eggs laid.
The other two nest box Wood Duck females trooped on, with embryos in eggs somehow surviving numerous days where temperatures were well above the optimum duck egg incubation temperature of 37.5 degrees C.
I purchased some Thermochron temperature loggers after the four-day 40 degree heatwave, and installed these in four same-sized small parrot nest boxes facing NE, SE, SW and NW, and also one Thermochron hanging on the tree on the least-sunny side to record the ambient woodland temperature.
These recorded the inside-nest box and also outside temperatures during the second 40 degree heatwave, to give me an idea of the temperature differences between nest boxes installed at different orientations.
From this season, I know that Crimson Rosella chicks can survive a heatwave of four consecutive 36-37 degree days, but can’t survive four consecutive days of 40-42 degrees [36.5, 40.1 (2 chicks dead), 41.6, 41.4, 40.1 (last chick dead), 36.0]. It is likely that even 2 degrees cooler may enhance chances of survival in a nest box during a hot spell, if such a difference can be gained with better nest box orientation.
From my little experiment and temperatures logged by the Thermochrons, there looks to be a small difference in the maximum temperatures reached, and also the duration of max temps, depending on nest box orientation. South East is the winning orientation, with maximum temps 1-3 degrees less than the max for other orientations.
This temperature difference I think, could have the potential to be life-saving for those very hot days. Similar results are found by other studies, however the temperature differences I would expect, would vary depending on the specific environmental conditions.
Heat for our bird nest boxes is going to be an ongoing challenge to solve, for a number of reasons.
The native vegetation on our property is an open-canopy grassy woodland regrowing from being completely cleared land for 25 years. Open grassy woodlands by nature, are not very shady. Most of our young regrowth trees are small in diameter. This means that tree trunks do not provide shade for installed nest boxes for much of the day, as large-girthed trees would. Many of our little scribbly gums and brittle gums are a little smaller, to just a little larger in diameter as the installed nest boxes.
To prevent predation of bird eggs, chicks and also adult birds by our numerous resident Sugar Gliders and Brushtail Possums, I must install the bird nest boxes on tall, straight (possum-guardable) trees, that do not have nearby cover of trees and shrubs that a possum can use to cross to the nest box. In comparison the possum nest boxes are installed on trees shaded by stands of Black Wattle, they do not suffer the Summer heat so much!
So I am aware that heat is going to be a challenge we will increasingly struggle with for our bird nest boxes, as future climate predictions for this region are of warmer, wetter Summers, with longer and more extreme heatwaves. Winter and Spring are predicted to become drier.
The nesting by birds such as Rosellas and Wood Ducks are often triggered by significant rainfall events in dryer localities such as ours, indicating that they will likely nest later in the year and during the hotter months (November-December rather than September-October) given future local climate predictions. Winter and Spring were exceptionally dry during the past year in our region, with interest in nesting by birds apparent only in late Spring after the first significant rainfall in months.
I see this anomalous twelve month period with weather events apparently very similar to predictions of our regional future climate predictions (dry Winter and Spring, very hot and more wet Summer with more and hotter heatwaves), being a good road-test of nesting challenges and successes for our local birds with the impacts of climate change. Given the successes we’ve had this nesting season, with only losing one family of nest box chicks (Crimson Rosellas) despite the significantly hotter than normal weather, the future looks promising in spite of the apparent challenges.
Meanwhile I’ll continue to enjoy figuring out solutions to overcome some of these challenges.
I have also just purchased tree climbing kit, so will be installing nest boxes designed for larger parrot species much higher up in the trees during the coming weeks. This will hopefully interest Gang Gangs, Galahs, King Parrots, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos and a few other large parrot species that occur in the local area. We shall see.
2 + 2 + 1 Ringtails, mums & bubs & one solitary 4-5 Sugar Gliders in one box
1 x raided Crimson Rosella nest (eggs) 3 Crimson Rosella chicks in one nest box died from heat 5 x raided Wood Duck nests (eggs, by Ravens & Brushtails) ………………………………….. Last year’s nest box tally:
1 White Throated Tree Creeper chick 2 Kookaburra chicks 3 Wood Duck ducklings
6+ Brushtails in different boxes, different days 1 + 1 + 1 + ? single Ringtails in different boxes 4-6 Sugar Glider family in one box
5 x raided Crimson Rosella nests (eggs) 6 x raided Wood Duck nests (eggs, one Brushtail tried to kill sitting mum) …………………………………. First year nest box tally:
No successfully nesting birds
6+ Brushtails sleeping in every box they could fit into, on different boxes on different days 1 + 1 single Ringtails using one box each, most days 4-6 Sugar Glider mum & bubs in one box
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.
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.
Our tree creeper family is doing well. Three eggs were laid but only one hatched. The chick is fully feathered now, and the parents are both off the nest during the warm parts of the day fetching food for their gaping-beaked youngster.
I quickly poked my head in a couple of weeks ago, then took a quick peek today.
The possum protection on the tree above and below the nest box (the below-box guard was not yet installed in the whole tree photo), and on all sides of the nest box except the front where the tree creepers climb up, and a lock on the lid to stop it from being opened appears to be doing the job keeping this little family safe.
I don’t have a wildlife camera on this box as I installed it where there is plenty of cover to keep the tree creeper parents safe from day time predators. Too many dangling leaves and waving branches in a slight breeze for an SD card to last more than a couple of days, and I’d certainly not want to visit that frequently and risk disturbing them or drawing attention to the nest – predator birds.
Our two nesting crimson rosella families are doing very well. One family has three chicks probably hatched last weekend, and the other has two almost feathered chicks clearly hatched quite a while ago! The young chick family started with 5 eggs, the older chick family started with 6 eggs. I’ve stayed well clear of the area for the past two weeks, however I took a quick peek as it’s important for me to know if my strategies are resulting in nesting success.
One nest box has no nearby trees, so a wildlife camera to watch any action is not possible. I have a wildlife camera on the three chick nest box. Did you know that previous year siblings help with keeping the nest-sitter fed? I didn’t! It looks like a juvenile diligently feeds the nest-sitter ever morning – and gets grouched at sometimes too. The adult mate comes later and calls the sitter off for brunch/lunch, and then a gain mid-afternoon.
So we are finally having success with parrots nesting in boxes, after trying for three nesting seasons. The first year, I only had a 2m high A-frame ladder and the nest boxes probably weren’t considered high enough by the parrots. I know this is a thing.
The second year, I purchased a very long ladder and shifted all the boxes to ~ 5m high positions up trees. All five of the small to medium parrot sized boxes had an egg laid in each in quick succession by (I think) all Crimson Rosellas, and within a day or few the nest boxes were raided and eggs eaten. No parrots successfully nested in any nest box last year.
I didn’t know then about the numerous brushtail possums on our property, that had been soft-released by Wildcare over many years, and that they like eating eggs, nestlings and adult birds. I estimate there are ~20 on our 5 acre property after seeing 2-3 in a single frame on my different wildlife cameras located across the property, and also from walking around and counting them on warm summer nights. I didn’t know to put possum protection on all nest box tree else they would be raided, except for one duck box that was raided the first year.
This year before nesting season I installed 1m wide thick plastic guards above and below all nest boxes to prevent raiding and occupation by brushtails, and occupation by ringtails. All of the small-medium sized parrot nest boxes that had brushtails or ringtails using them at some point in the past year did not get any interest from nesting parrots. Three new, clean smelling nest boxes had eggs laid, one was raided by a sugar glider and was abandoned, and the other two are the ones with chicks now in them.
This box was raided the evening before, the possum guards are too far apart and don’t protect fully against Sugar Gliders crossing from the close nearby tree.
Some of our duck nest boxes were raided this year by crows, so I’ve begun to paint all the nest boxes in woodland bark colours. From many years of birdwatching I know that the survival of a nest depends strongly on it being not noticed by predators. Camouflage is vital part of this. Since the sugar glider raid, I have been quite heavy handed with installing anti-possum guards on some of the nest boxes with eggs laid now that I have discovered that sugar gliders love to eat eggs, as well as do the brushtail possums. The possum guards look to be working so far.
I will do lots of experimentation once nesting season is over, with possum protection of trees & nest boxes, nest box placements, and with many wildlife cameras watching the antics of our probably dozens of resident sugar gliders trying to gain access to the nest boxes. Wood duck, kookaburra and white throated tree creeper nest box updates coming in the next few weeks…
It’s no wonder the nest boxes installed as ‘environmental offsets’ in place of cleared habitat trees, intended for endangered species such as orange-bellied parrots, are found to be not used by the intended species. There is much more to encouraging the use, and also ensuring the success of any nesting efforts, of a nest box by a fussy target species that is vulnerable to predation, than just sticking a nest box up a tree and walking away.
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!
