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.