Babes in the Woods

Doug Raplh recently took a look in his nest boxes and discovered Sugar Gliders and Owlet Nightjars had taken up residence. These photos were taken at 10 am.

Sugar Gliders and Owlet Nightjars

As people probably know Connecting Country has installed a large number of nest boxes designed for Phascogale habitation at various locations throughout our region. Phascogales are a threatened species with the main threats being loss and fragmentation of habitat, increased traffic of rural roads and predation from cats and foxes. There is also competition from native and non-native animals for tree hollows. The aim of the program is to help Phascogales survive in local Box-Ironbark forests and allow monitoring over time. The results of the first 2 years of the monitoring program have recently been published showing that the proportion of sites supporting Tuans have been 14.1% (2011) and 15.0% (2012). Sugar Gliders have been present in some boxes and, unfortunately, feral bees. The Connecting Country website has more information including instructions on monitoring nest boxes.