Swaggy

Swaggy

What other ideas are there existing for transforming backyards into wildlife habitat??

For example, sometimes the fruit bats sleep in the day right in Queen street mall.  Why, what is attracting them right into the centre of the City at specific times?

Maybe the City Council will eventually put together a publication about all the various ways Brisbanites are succeeding in supplying habitat, (either in back yards or by work in public landscaped areas, or in reforesting and weeding the creeks etc.), to native fauna.  What sorts of bird seed are not going to harm the native birds?  How many folk know that sunflower seeds are addictive for parrots and so potentially harmful?  There should be a more readily accessible method for ordinary families to find the information to take more responsibility for their back yards.  Although the gardening shows on TV are a great starting place.

This is Sabco's new Joey who we have christened Scrubber ( names of brushes are harder than I thought, smile) her first  joey was a road kill victim, and she is obviously nervous about showing Scrubber off, but there she is every evening at dusk waiitng for her handout

Swaggy

More strength to your arm Swagman.Having read your post on  "POSSUMS, and the subsequent follow up posts.It leaves me wondering do Council Ward Offices read the content and offer any help, or are they (as it seems ) only interested in tunnels and roads? Come to that, what about the State Government Environmental Minister...who ever it is?

BIRDY

BIRDY

Recently our state officials learned that dead/hollow trees were important source of shelter for black bears.  Park Officials in the state I live in -- Maryland -- recently conducted a study and learned that a significant share of the state's black bear population actually live in hollow trees.  Previously the prevailing assumption was that most of them lived in caves.

Here in the United States, besides birds, the primary animal  boxes are put up for are squirrels.  Squirrels have adapted quite well to living with people and you find them where ever there are large trees  --- particularly oak trees that provide the squirrels with acorns (a nut).  The squirrels often take over boxes intended for other animals - primarily birds.

Bluebird houses or boxes provide valuable shelter for our bluebird population.  Unfortunately many of the natural tree cavities that bluebirds have been taken over by starlings.  Woodpeckers have also lost out to starlings in the competition for tree cavities.  But unlike with the bluebirds woodpeckers have not benefited from boxes  -- because the hole is large enough for starlings while the holes for bluebird houses/boxes are too small for starlings.

 Richard

Instead of mulching everything, some of the biggest branches and stumps could have holes drilled and place in the nearest areas of bush.

In our area - Mansfield, Mt Gravatt, the Council has a habit of felling trees and leaving the stumps on areas of grass when there is a garden bed or bush only metres away.

If they had the right tool they could drill a hole and manoeuvre it into the bush to provide a safe place for local wildlife to shelter/hide.

A man made box that is accessible to vandals would be more attractive for those who do not respect public property than a hole in a tree.

Phil - Mansfield

PS  The Mansfield Bushcare group meets this Saturday from 8 -10 at the end of Banika St for those who would like to volunteer and support their efforts.  

Phil

In reading the messages in this discussion it looks like Brisbane has many of the same issues as in the area I live in the state of Maryland in the United States.  We are also fighting to preserve our local plants and animals.  We have developers that just saw down all the trees on a building site rather than work around them.  Its just too much effort for the builders to save the trees.   One of the battles that the local environmentalists just lost is a toll road that is going to wreck havoc with the wildlife in a number of stream habitats.  Currently, there is a project to rescue the box turtles that aren't able to relocate on their own.  They have hired a man with turtle hunting dogs, that so far has located 90 box turtles on the land to be bulldozed for the road.  They have hooked the turtles up with transmitters, so they can be found and relocated when the road building catches up with them.

We also have possums, but I don't think they are related to the Australian possum.  Actually ours are technically opossums but possums for short.  Our possums have adapted very well to living around people.  Their range has been greatly extended as a result of people.  I think the primary reason is that most of their natural predators -- cougars and wolves -- have been eliminated so they have readily multiplied.

We have programs for building nesting boxes, but it is primarily for birds.  Most of our mammals, with the exception of squirrels, don't take to nesting boxes.  The squirrels are really abundant and do not need the help of nesting boxes in order to multiply.

I have been following your drought.  I sure hope you have been getting some rain.  We have also been having a bad drought.   Recently, including today, we have been getting some rain.  Hopefully it will help the trees survive, lots of large trees have been dying.

Nice site.

Richard

Hello Swagman

Thankyou for your comments, link and photo. I hope you don't mind but have "Uploaded" your image so it can be viewed by all (it is a great great shot ) as your initial "Attachment" of an image meant that people needed to be logged in to see it.

Regards

BCC - SPOCE

 There are many others, and some are available ready made to suit either species. I have tried to post a pic of the box with my last post...dunno if it was successful though "smile" ,I hope it was  because  it also shows the resident tenants Sabco and her joey Willow. The box is attached to the tree by  metal brackets which I purchased from Bunnings and piece of timber screwed across the back. Actually. I have had so much fun out of the project that I intend to make another one for the other tree on  my lawn and this time make the entrance hole smaller to cater for Ringtail possums and I shall make the box lie horizontal as I have read that more than one  animal can then occupy it. In the top of this tree which is a Tuckeroo there are two large nests made of leaves which I think are those of Ringtails. I think in my first post I mentioned that I also spotted a ringtail  high in the canopy of the Leapard Tree...hope that helps

Swaggy

Swaggy

I see the occassional possum around my area (Kings Park Estate Keperra) and I must admit it is good to see a bit of native wildlife.  Having said that the possum can be a real bug bear in your roof. 

I like the idea of possum boxes being placed in convenient trees for these wonderful natives to take up abode, but it concerns me that this could become an alternative to retaining natural habitat for them....along with a myriad of other native wildlife that depends on trees and bushland.

All too often I see housing developers start developing an area that is reasonably wooded with native trees by totally denuding the area of all, every single bit, of natural greenery, all in the name of money.  The less trees they have to work around, the easier it is for them to put "just one more house" into the development.  This also means that the native wildlife that used the trees and scrub as their home are now "out in the cold"...they have nowhere to live.  These native animals quickly fall prey to introduced animals like cats and dogs.

BCC, please, PLEASE, rein in the developers who do this.  Do not allow them to bulldoze everything because it is easier and more cost effective for them.  I accept that the provision of housing is a massive subject, but it appears to me that all too often decisions are based on economics and politics with little or no thought for the environment, ie our Flora and Fauna.

Scorcher

Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!

Die dulci freure.

Hi Jolly

Thanks for your great post.  We had a possum in our gutter and the property agent got someone to come and block their access. Your post has made me rethink what we have done and I would like to make available an alternate site that may or may not be taken up by our evicted possum friend. Are you able to post the link that gave the details of building the possum box? How did you secure it to the tree? I would be interested if you had a photo of your handy work that would be happy to share (you could just paste it in the forum).

Cheers