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Safe Havens Large Forest Owls Project Update Dec 2024
Friday, 13th December 2024
The Large Forest Owls - Safe Havens Project has been busy working to conserve large forest owls and other hollow dependant fauna across the Richmond and Clarence lowlands in northern NSW.
The acoustic monitoring program is using Songmeters at over 50 sites to monitor the presence of owls and a range of other nocturnal fauna. In the last 18 months we have undertaken the equivalent of 8884 survey nights collecting many terabytes of data for analysis. The surveys are primarily targeting Masked Owl, Barking Owl, Powerful Owl, however we are also recording the presence of a range of other threatened species including koala, yellow-bellied glider and Glossy black-cockatoo.
Our nest box program has involved the installation of over 400 nest boxes to increase habitat for hollow dependant fauna. We now have a network of 744 nestboxes across the project area. Over spring we checked in on 627 of these nestboxes to see what was using them and the results showed they are providing much needed homes for wildlife. A total 476 nestboxes (76%) were either occupied or had evidence of use such as presence of a leaf nest which is constructed by many arboreal marsupials. Squirrel gliders were the most common species, and we also recorded common brushtail possum, sugar glider, brush-tailed phascogale, brown tree creepers and microbats.
We are also undertaking a trial of installing artificial hollows for large forest owls. We are installing 10 of these new designed ‘owl tubes’ and have installed infrared cameras to monitor their use. Large forest owls have rarely been recorded using artificial hollows and we are hoping this trial can provide insight into their use as a practical conservation measure to increase nesting and breeding habitat in areas with low density of natural large tree hollows. Over the owl breeding season, which occurs in winter and spring, we have been monitoring a Barking owl nest tree using an infrared camera. This provided insight into the activity around the nest including the male bringing in a range of prey items to his mate. We were all stoked when we observed 3 fluffy chicks emerge from the hollow in early October!
To hear more about what the Large Forest owl Project is up to head to https://www.nature.org.au/owls_project or find us on Facebook. Be sure to check out our recent video showing landholders how clearing a small fire break around those valuable large hollow bearing trees can protect them from the impacts of bushfires and planned burns.
This project is supported by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust