Recently a local Wildlife Rescuer discovered two baby Owlet-nightjars that had been mauled and killed in our local bushland. Whilst saddened at the loss, it was significant to find these small nocturnal birds locally.
The Owlet Nightjar is a common and widespread bird preferring tree-studded habitat with hollows. During the day it roosts in these hollows and tree trunks. The birds form permanent bonds and live in the same territory throughout the year.
The Owlet Nightjars are the smallest of the nocturnal birds and only raise one brood per season of 2-5 eggs. The nest is usually placed in a tree hollow or rock crevice. The Progress Association will be assisting local wildlife carers with provision of suitable nestboxes to support the local population of Owlet Nightjars and increase the number of ‘tree hollows’ available.
Hollow logs are vital for survival for many native animals. Possums, sugar gliders, birds of all shapes and sizes need the shelter, protection and warmth that only good wood insulation can provide. The removal of logs from the bushland especially as winter approaches, places the survival of local wildlife at risk. Log hollows take decades to form and are a precious commodity. Please leave the logs in the bush this winter.
For more information about Owlet Nightjars
It’s that time of year when the warm glow of a log fire warms the heart and the hearth, and often it’s the local bush that is the provider of the generous log bounty, a seemingly never ending supply. But if you’ve been out scavenging recently you might have noticed you needed to go further a field because the logs are getting far and few between.
In the local bush a log is so much more than a hearth warmer. For 20% of birds and 30% of mammals a hollow tree is home, a home that can take upto 120 years to build. For ground feeding birds, frogs, lizards and 20% of mammals fallen trees i.e laying around logs are home and habitat.
In our bushland suburb we are very fortunate to still have possums, gliders and bats as well as an impressive variety of bids, and ground dwelling lizards and snakes. The fallen timber, logs branches and sticks provide valuable shelter for the local wildlife.
There are other reasons too, to leave a fallen log lay.
The Florabank website explains “Logs provide both habitat and nutrients. As they gradually break down due to the actions of weather, fungi, and termites, they release nutrients into the soil. They also act as mulch, conserving niches of damp soil, which allows soil invertebrates to thrive and even assists plants to germinate and grow. At ground level, logs can act as mini-windbreaks, providing shelter from extreme weather for ground-dwelling fauna. Logs and sticks also trap soil and nutrients that are washed or blown across a site, and are particularly valuable in degraded sites to build up pockets of soil and organic matter for plant germination.”
Along the Coal Point peninsula we have a lot of bush that is worthy of considering and caring about. We also have one place that has the highest environmental zoning possible, Threlkeld Reserve.
Threlkeld’s exceptional environmental status is because it’s a bushland foreshore reserve. The reserve’s purpose is to protect the plants and wildlife, this means removing rocks, logs, sticks or other bits that the wildlife need to survive is not permitted because it compromises the intent of the zoning on the land.
