Building homes for birds and bats

BIRDS and bats could make your backyard their home with the refuge of a nesting box.

Two local Landcare groups are hosting a nesting box education and building workshop this Sunday, 27 November from 10am to 12pm at the Shelford Cricket Clubrooms.

Geelong Landcare Network facilitator Bronwyn Merritt said attendees will be able to learn about why nesting boxes are needed for native animals, and then can make one of their own.

“Myself, and bat enthusiast Grant Baverstock, will start the workshop with a presentation on why we need to make artificial hollows, and their importance, and then we’ll get building all the nesting boxes,” she said.

“There are three different types of boxes; one for medium-sized parrots, a box for spotted pardalotes, and one for bats, and I think by the end of Grant’s talk, a lot of people will be excited if they get the bat box.”

Ms Merritt said over the last couple of hundred years, so much vegetation has been cleared that there aren’t enough tree hollows available for wildlife to nest in.

“Often trees need to be over 100 years old to have a hollow in them, so building the nesting boxes is one way we can help, giving them artificial hollows.

“We’ve decided to focus on three types, but you can make boxes for possums, sugar gliders, and many more native Australian animals,” she said.

GLN recently held a similar session in Lethbridge with the new Bruces Creek Landcare group, and Ms Merritt said it was a lot of fun for adults and kids alike, who were anticipating the wildlife they might spot in their own garden.

“People get to take their nesting boxes home and put them up wherever they would like to, and hopefully, they will see them getting used by birds or bats,” she said.

Those attending are asked to bring their own drill or screwdrivers.

Register at bit.ly/3Ewiodk and visit facebook.com/GeelongLandcareNetwork for more information and updates.