The “Know how” of a Nesting Box

Throughout Term 1 a group of Year 8 students participated in the Somerset Shed program, meeting every Monday lunchtime to work on creating Nesting boxes to be donated to the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. After several weeks of cutting, hammering and making sure the bits of timber lined up, we were ready to deliver these.

Did you know that nesting boxes are an important aspect to wildlife conservation? Increasingly due to an increase in human development as well as the removal of damaged and dead trees it has left many cavity nesting birds with fewer places to raise their young Invasive birds, such as the Indian myna compete with native bird species for the rest of these remaining cavities.

On the last day of Term 2, we were fortunate to complete the full cycle of this “head, hearts, hands” approach to this Service initiative by personally delivering the nesting boxes to the Wildlife Hospital, where they will be mounted in trees around the Sanctuary. At the Hospital we were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of all the happenings at the Hospital. This hospital is one of the busiest wildlife hospitals in the world, with statistics showing since 2007 their patient admissions have doubled. The staff and volunteers are truly dedicated to providing the highest level of veterinary care to all their patients – truly making a difference.

We would particularly like to thank Lewis McKillop for taking the time out of his busy day to share with us his knowledge. For all of us, it was extremely satisfying to know that our effort and production went to a great cause. On behalf of the entire group we would like to thank Mrs Walker for supervising and guiding us through this fun process.