Breeding box success 2012

 Thought I would do a little update on where we are with the breeding box project here at St Hallett Winery for 2012!
 After two seasons of success with the original boxes I built in 2010 I thought it would be good to use all the timber we purchased with the help of the local NRM board (thanks again Liz!) and build more of the same! Hardest part about this great idea... was trying to find the time to build them! Put it this way.... I wasn't getting anywhere fast... and breeding season was approaching! Then a stroke of luck! Megan one of my fellow 'Hallett valley catchment care group' members came up with a great idea! Up in Nuriootpa there is a men's shed! and we thought this type of project would be perfect for them! Gives them a feel good project to work on and means the boxes would be able to be placed in the trees before the breeding season commenced! A month or so later... 20 new boxes got delivered, looking good and just waiting to be hung!
A few months later and the season has been a bumper one for our local Rosella population with at least 24 babies either fledged or about to fledge! This season I have placed three boxes on the tank-farm handrails next to one of the Eucalyptus plantations. Two of the three are being used by Adelaide Rosella's and the other has been occupied by feral Starlings, which after throwing their five clutches of eggs over the edge have finally given up and moved on! I do weekly checks during the breeding season to remove any of the feral Starling nests which are the main competitor to the Rosella's and other natives for the use of the boxes! So far I have now removed somewhere between 50-70 Starling eggs! (Always try to get the eggs before they hatch as I prefer not to have to deal with chicks!)
To put a face to this story below are some images of the fast growing baby Rosella's from the tank-farm boxes and a few other shots from around the grounds!

Adelaide Rosella chick

 

and a younger version from another nest!



Six little cuties! from a nest hanging from the tank-farm handrails!



Another tank-farm handrail nest with four chicks!



and the same nest again



This box also has six chicks in it about to fledge!

 

Two of the three nesting boxes we have hanging from the tank-farm handrails! Two of the boxes are being used by Rosella's the other has had a pair of Starlings keep trying to use it but I keep throwing their eggs away! I think after five goes they have now given up!



This box has a pair of Rosella's using it and we can now hear chicks calling from inside.. not sure how many as I haven't been up to it since the Rosella's took up residence! So I haven't included these ones in the count of 24! There are also a few boxes due to circumstances I can't get up to and check so the count of babies is most likely considerably higher!!



Another of the feral's the birds have to deal with.... annoyingly feral bees often take over residence of the boxes!



Thought I would throw this image of a Bat box in as well! On one of my earlier posts you will see a population of Gould's Wattled Bats in one of our boxes... this is the box and I'm happy to say they still call this box their home!



Project Bird Boxes

I will start with an extract of an email I sent to the NRM board to do with improving the St Hallett wastewater eucalypt plantations:

With only small remnants of natural woodland left in the northern Mt Lofty ranges, most native wildlife populations are left isolated and on a downward slide to oblivion. I believe we owe it to the original inhabitants of this region, within our capabilities, to preserve and expand the habitats that are left.

The North Para River acts as probably the single most important natural corridor for wildlife through the Barossa region. My idea is to improve the St Hallett Winery section of this corridor by building and installing a range of different sized bird/bat breeding and roosting boxes throughout the wastewater eucalypt plantations in an attempt to make the area more attractive to native wildlife. There are many native bird species (Rosellas, Lorikeets, Red-rump Parrots, Treecreepers, Pardalotes, Kookaburras etc) in this area which would benefit from such a project.  etc...etc...

With this in mind I got in contact with the NRM board to arrange some funding so I could start building a few Bird and Bat Breeding/Roosting boxes around the woodlots. Using a little of the time afforded to me by there still being a few casual helpers about the winery left over from vintage, I managed to build 12 bird boxes of different sizes and 2 Bat roosting boxes and get them up around the winery grounds just before the breeding season commenced.



It didn't take to long before the Adelaide Rosellas started checking the new boxes out



Whats in here?

The project turned out to be a big success with every bird box made being used at sometime during the season! At least 7 chicks fledged from the boxes that I know of, 1 nest failed for some unexplained reason and many feral Starling eggs were removed!

The Bat boxes are still unused at this stage but I believe this is not unusual, as bats tend to like the box to be aged a while before they will use it, so I'm still hopeful!!



Half-fledged Adelaide Rosella chicks

This is an ongoing project and more updates will follow!