The soap opera continues
Female Treecreeper – note the ochre neck spot
With nesting season upon us we have been waiting to find out what the latest residents in our much-blogged about (click HERE to view) nest-box are. I am writing a soap opera about the comings and goings of both the furred and the feathered in this piece of real estate. It will be called The Box, in honour of the ground-breaking 1970s TV soap. Some of you will be old enough to remember it (I am) and were allowed to watch it (I wasn’t). This season a pair of White-throated Treecreepers (Cormobates leucophaea) has moved in. 
Normally they would nest in a hollow branch or cavity in a tree trunk. The birds had been casing the joint for several weeks but last weekend they spent the day removing rubbish from within the nest-box and replacing it with new bedding.
Not 20 metres away a pair of Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla) has taken up residence in the hollow limb of an old Red Stringybark (Eucalyptus macrorhyncha). The racket coming from that direction over the past month attests to the fact that it was also hotly contested real estate.
Tawny Frogmouth
While over at Len and Trude’s place, the recently sighted (click HERE to view post) Tawny Frogmouths (Podargus strigoides) have built their typical flimsy nest of twigs and leaves and have started sitting. I will watch this nest with interest because it doesn’t look like it could withstand a breath of wind.
Spring is here.
Focus On Fauna 
I love all these stories from nature. Some nests do need some serious stabilisation! We watched a red fire tail finch’s nest last year. The nest looked like a jumble of grasses all knotted together in the middle of rambling roses, but still the birds managed to raise many chicks! I pulled grass from the middle of a daisy bush and was immediately castigated by several silver eyes (you can see I am very good at the latin words) as I had disturbed their nest. That evening a group of fluff balls were being guided by parents and aunts (?) to a safer spot away from the giant weeder!. Thank you again Ron for your stories from nature.
Susan