Parkerville Primary

This morning we went to Parkerville Primary with a lot of excitement, Simon in particular, as this was Simon's school when he was young. What fun we had there! We got directed to the new library, past all the great little hidey holes and tunnels through the gardens and under bushes where the kids had their "nature play" area - what a fantastic space. In the library we ran our presentations on hollow-using animals and waste to the whole school. 

One thing that always amazes and inspires us in our work is the fantastic questions kids throw at us, and their great understanding of how things work when we throw questions back. Parkerville Primary students were no exception - what a great bunch! Although we could only do the building part of the workshop with one class, the presentations we gave inspired other classes to conduct a cleanup of the school, their cross country track, and a whole lot of other ideas on new ways to recycle their waste. 

While Mrs Boyd's class was putting together seven nest boxes (two Black-Cockatoo, two parrot and three possum), some of the younger classes came in to see what all the fuss was about. We got some of the older students to describe what they were doing and why, much to the interest of everyone. Once all the boxes were assembled it was time to paint, and what better place to do it than out on the lawn under a big marri tree.

Finally it was time to start hanging the possum and parrot boxes, although we had barely got the first one in a tree when the bell rang. Thanks to the students who stayed back after school to help! Due to windy conditions we could not hang the larger Black-Cockatoo boxes on the day of the workshop, but that just gave us an excuse to come back! Under the supervision of a number of classes, Simon put them up when the conditions were safer. There was much excitement to see how he was going to get them up into the tall marri trees in the school ground.

We would like to thank Leonie Boyd for organising the day and the staff and students at Parkerville Primary for making us feel so welcome. We would especially like to thank the students involved in the workshop for their lovely letters of thanks! If any of the students from the school want to tell us what has been using their we would love to hear from you! Please put your comments below.

Bull Creek PEAC

Back down the hill for another fun Re-Cyc-Ology day, this time to work with some PEAC (Primary Extension and Challenge program) kids who meet at Bull Creek Primary every fortnight. We started off the day talking about why we were building nest boxes for native wildlife and why they were mostly made out of recycled material. As usual this stimulated a lot of interesting discussion within the group about habitat conservation and waste.

Then it was outside and into making the boxes. This workshop was a little different from our usual school program as the nest boxes were not being put up at Bull Creek Primary. PEAC is made up of students from a number of different schools, so we made enough boxes for one to be taken back to each of the ten schools.

With everyone working in groups and only a little help from us we got the ten parrot boxes finished by lunchtime. After lunch it was painting time. The reason for painting the boxes is to give them an extra weather-proof coating (especially the cut edges), and so they blend more easily into the trees when they are hung, making them more attractive to the animals.

We would like to thank the PEAC coordinator Ellen Beemster for organising the day, and the kids for making it such a great day for us. If any of the students involved in the workshop or who have nest boxes at their school would like to let us know what is using their boxes, we would love to hear from you. Please write your comments below. 

Nearer to Nature - Canning River Eco Education Centre

Another school holidays and we are back to the Canning River Eco Education Centre to run a Re-Cyc-Ology workshop as part of the Nearer to Nature school holiday program. This time we had nine kids and some parent helpers to make parrot nest boxes for everyone to take home and hang at the end of the day. Unfortunately one girl was sick and couldn't make it, but she did not totally miss out, we sent a nest box kit home with her brother for her to make when she felt better. 

There was lots of busy action out on the CREEC verandah while we got to work. We only had a few hours to get the boxes finished before parents returned. This meant that they could not be painted, but we sent them home with an information sheet on how to finish off their boxes and get them ready for hanging.

We would love to hear from any of the kids who came to the workshop. Put a comment below on what the workshop was like and if anything is in your box yet!

Thanks to the Nearer to Nature team, particularly Jill Francis and Berdina Ballast, for organising the workshop, and the Canning River Eco Education Centre for letting us use their facilities. Also a particularly big thank you to Mel and volunteer Carolyn for helping us out on the day.

Helena College

"A twenty metre nest-box-installing climb into the vibrant crown of this giant, wonderful, incredible, colossal, ancient (200+ yr-old) Marri tree, which glowed in the afternoon sun and tempted me (Simon) up there like a cave full of glistening jewels, was the highlight of my day. And possibly year. We only met last week but we are now best of friends. Her arms cradled me with all the gentle care in the world, and the view she offered me (I could see Mt Dale 50km away!) was immense. To think that if she could talk, this tree would whisper tales of witnessing countless Nyoongar ceremonies, then one day seeing the first party of white explorers following the Helena River into the Darling Scarp, CHANGES THE GRAIN of the human mind."

 

This was one of eight beautiful Eucalypt trees Simon had the privilege of climbing to install nest boxes for Black Cockatoos at Helena College, made by students at the school as part of a community services project. The students were able to salvage demolition timber and plywood to apply our 're-cyc-ology' train of thought to their boxes. We spent the first two afternoons of their ten-week project getting them started on how to build a nest box for Black-Cockatoos. They then spent the rest of the term building their own and had completed ten boxes by the end - such a great effort, and wonderful idea for a community services project!! 

The eight boxes Simon has installed have a good chance of being used by cockies as just down the road in a private garden, several boxes are currently being used by both Red-tailed and Carnaby's Black-Cockatoos.

Our enormous thanks go to Margaret Hogan and Kate Abbott for asking us to assist with the project, and the school handymen Jason and Jason for their help providing guidance to the students during construction, and helping Simon with installation too.

 

Here's a cutting from the local Hills Gazette showing one of the boxes ready to be hoisted up!

Kwinana Men's Shed

A beautifully decked out workshop with all the tools we could possible need made a nice change to our humble toolkit normally used to build boxes in schools. The men (and woman) at the Kwinana Men's shed were raring to get going when we arrived on this September morning to run another Re-Cyc-Ology workshop.

Unlike the schools, we didn't need to teach these guys how to use their tools - they already make beautiful things out of wood such as pens, cutting boards and clocks which are sold to raise money for future Men's Shed projects. All we had to do was give them the plans for the different boxes and away we all went. By the end of the day we had put together ten boxes from scratch - two each for Black-Cockatoos, pardalotes and ducks (yes that is right many of our ducks nest in tree hollows) and three for parrots and three for possums/parrots. These all went up in trees local native bush reserves.

We would like to thank the City of Kwinana and Friends of Homestead Ridge for organising the workshop and providing funding, and Bert Pooley and the guys from Kwinana Men's Shed for making us feel so welcome.

If anyone from the Homestead Ridge area would like to post comments about progress of the nest boxes, please do so below.