Rob was overwhelmed by the support when a call went out on our member newsletter.

There was an immediate response to help make a large number of bird boxes to support an order from a group wishing to enhance habitat in people’s gardens. We had more offers of time and talent than boxes pre-cut ready to assemble and paint.

Rob Carseldine has been fossicking for builders’ offcuts and become very friendly with many local tradesmen. FoNW Inc. have moved from recycled hardwood fence palings for bat boxes to recycled hardwood offcuts from some of the building sites and these can also be used for various bird nesting boxes. 

New homes are being built at a rapid rate in Bayside and blocks of land are being erased of every bush, tree and clump of grass demolishing the precious habitat of insects, reptiles, birds and mammals such as microbats.  Enter FoNW Inc. to the rescue to build new homes to house wildlife that use hollows and established nooks and crannies in old established gardens and sheds.

Rob is building wildlife boxes as close to the requirements of particular species as possible in the hope that they may find a home in our area in an attempt to reverse the drop in population numbers. Wildlife observers have noticed falling numbers of Pardelotes and also the nesting options for our pretty Rosellas.  Not only are these birds losing nesting vegetation they are also being pushed out by more boisterous species such as Noisy Miners, Rainbow Lorikeets and introduced Indian Mynas.  

FoNW also recommend keeping leaf litter in parts of your garden too, plus some logs both on the ground and in small piles for reptiles and insects. The best solution on offer at the moment is to build up pockets of your gardens with thick patches of a variety of grasses/sedges, small bushes/some prickly and under-storey shrubs and where possible, at least one tree.  One large tree can provide a huge number of insects and bird habitat to support the web of life. Some plants provide seeds or are food for caterpillars, all food for birds.  Local indigenous plants from the Community Nursery provide the correct flowering plants to support local small birds rather than larger pushy birds. Indigenous flowers are much smaller than the larger hybrid flowers found on many plants in commercial nurseries.

Microbats eat large numbers of insects each night which keep plagues of insects under control, but they do not like the increased light in the night sky such as brightly lit gardens and tennis courts as well as tall, powerful sporting ground floodlights. 

Humans have a lot to answer for.  We are often ignorant of the progress we desire which can cause so many problems for the environment which keeps our planet working.

Thanks to Bunnings for a generous donation and to our latest volunteers Mike, Mark, Alan, Clare, Laura, Joy, Paul and John.  Not all managed to help in the first round.  Rob was overwhelmed by the support and is preparing more kits to enable as many boxes as possible to be placed ready for the spring breeding season. 

The Indian Myna group are using the wildlife boxes from FoNW Inc. and are encouraging the planting of suitable wildlife habitat from the local community nursery.  Residents can also purchase some wildlife boxes from the community nursery.  

All we need now is a good quantity of rainfall to provide food for our large variety of animals to continue the web of life.