Sunday, August 8, 2010

New Holland Honeyeater



Not a great picture - I had to take it through the lounge-room window because the birds fly away if I open the front door - but I really wanted a pic of these regular visitors, so here it is. Hopefully I'll get a better one in the future.

New nesting boxes installed






We've just installed two new nesting boxes on my uncle and aunt's property, which is over the road from ours. The larger one is for Powerful Owls (Ninox ninox), which are endangered because, at about 60cm in height, they have trouble finding old trees with hollows big enough for them to breed in. The other box is for Sugar Gliders, which I've only discovered recently in the garden after the dog brought a dead one to the back door ( a cat had killed it and then dropped the poor little bugger when the dog chased it up a tree.) It will probably take at least a year before they get used. Hopefully the presence of Sugar Gliders, which are common, will attract the owls that feed on them, and then the owls in turn will start breeding. I have heard a Powerful Owl one night in April (they make a conventional hooting noise). The boxes have dry mulch from wattle trees in them. We had to install them away from our garden because we already have boxes for rosellas, bats and tree creepers, and if owls start living nearby then the other animals won't nest there.