Our students have been fortunate to be visited by the Nowra Men's Shed – who have helped build for them, a nesting box for the school grounds!

The nesting box is hoped to attract endangered Powerful Owls or Black Cockatoos to the school.

The little shelter will be located in the Black Cockatoo Garden, with our Year 6 Aboriginal student leaders being involved in the project.

There are a large number of Australian native animals, particularly birds and mammals that need to use tree hollows either for shelter or to breed. The students learned there are about 114 bird species and about 83 mammal species that require tree hollows for these purposes.

The Shoalhaven region has lost a large number of mature trees that have hollows due to the 2019/20 bushfires, so our school is very pleased to help the wildlife recovery in our local area with a nesting box.

Without tree hollows or shelters such as these nesting boxes, those birds that only use hollows to nest, simply won’t breed. Bird and mammal species that need tree hollows to sleep by day or night such as gliders, owls, and many possum species, risk being taken by predators, succumbing to the cold during the winter months or perishing in search of a tree hollow in someone else’s territory.

St Michael's thanks The Jane Goodall Foundation for its grant for our fantastic nesting box.