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.
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
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 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!
A happy, then sad, and now hopefully happy story about ducks and gardening with nest boxes. So last Christmas I bought lots of different nest boxes and put them up around our new bush home. Then I scooted off to work in the Central Desert region for many months, meanwhile my husband has been getting pretty friendly with the local wood ducks. On my first day home a week ago, I poked my nose into all the nest boxes, and found a ringtail possum in the glider box, and a brush tail possum in the black cockatoo/wood duck box. Cool, I thought.
Then a few days later I saw a wood duck disappearing into the wood duck box for a short while, then she flew away. I poked my nose back inside the box later that day, and alas discovered one partly chewed duck egg, and just the remains of one other.
Likely a brush tail possum’s entree me thinks, no chance Mrs Wood would be back after destruction of her eggs. So I heaved the massive box down and put it on our porch for a day, pondering a plan B.
The following morning I hear Mrs Wood’s Waaaark wak wak wak and felt sad, thinking she’d discovered the nest box gone. Later that morning after the rain stopped, I looked inside the nest box on our back porch for some reason?? and discovered a new duck egg!! She’d seen the nest box on our back porch, walked over and sat in it, and laid that egg.
Onto Google I immediately went, in search of ideas for possum barriers for trees, then hightailed it to Bunnings for some thick polycarbonate plastic. Rigged up two possum tree guards (above and below) late that afternoon and heaved the nest box back up the tree, together with a couple of wildlife camera traps to catch any possum or duck action, and crossed my fingers for the next day. Would she? Surely not!
Well she did! (isn’t that quite incredible?) There are now two duck eggs in the wood duck box, and she’s visited the box twice today according to my wildlife camera. All my fingers and toes are crossed that everything goes well for Mrs Wood and her eggs, it would be lovely to see ducklings soon. Goes to show that wildlife and people can work together 🙂
This is our second Madam Wood, fighting for the lives of her 18 developing eggs last night. She lost, and almost paid with her life. In a second video clip the possum dragged her out of the nest box, and she fled into the dark night. The Woods returned at first light this morning but decided to abandon their nest. I don’t blame them. The eggs were icy cold this evening when I discovered the carnage of broken eggs and the camera footage. I had put possum guards on the tree, but the possum had discovered a high altitude branch crossing for the first time last night.
Human impacts on nature can come in many forms. We live next door to a wildlife carer who rescues and soft-releases brush tail possums at her home and has done for many years, they are not returned to where they were found. This is not uncommon for rescuers to do this I understand, also relocation programs where land is to be cleared is another example. We have at least 20 living on our 5 Acre woodland property, some nights it appears as if there is a possum up every tree. Things are seriously out of kilter, ecosystem arboreal predator carrying capacity-wise.
The irony is that by saving each life and releasing many brushtail possums over time at the one location with free food at home base, the lives of many more animals are lost or offspring eaten. These numerous possums also compete against other animals for the few remaining large tree hollows. The ecosystem is out of balance. I haven’t seen any bush birds nest successfully on our woodland property in the two years we’ve been here.
Of four active duck nest boxes this year so far, three have now been raided by brushtail possums. This is the latest and the only one with a full clutch of eggs part-way through incubation. At least I can move these boxes to more protectable trees, now I know the extent of the possum threat. The other bush birds don’t stand a chance.
I don’t dislike possums, but there are consequences for releasing large numbers of one species into an ecosystem already, at or over carrying capacity.
