Shane has brought (at some risk - see later) her first baby to show the humans. The baby is a tough and active one and has been named Jedi. I think Jedi is female, but I'm not sure.
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| Jedi - 2nd Oct 2021 |
Since it's been a while since the last blog post, here are some more recent photos of the other babies.
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| Blake - 12th Sept 2021 |
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| Blossom - 25th Sept 2021 |
It seems that the fallout of the fight between Sasha and Wink is that Wink has taken over the (highly desirable) area of the house from Sasha. She sleeps in (and sometimes on top of) box 7 in the garage and box 4 on the South wall of the house.
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| Blossom back-riding on Wink - 25th Aug 2021 |
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| Blossom back-riding on Wink - 10th Sept 2021 [Photo by Xesce] |
Wink is being a bit of a tyrant (not a criticism - that's what being the dominant female in the area entails) and seems to be preventing other possums from visiting the house. She allows Marcel to visit, but the others have been keeping their distance and now only rarely come to the house.
Sasha has not been chased out of the area but has been banished to the bottom of the garden. She now only uses boxes 1 and 3 which are in this area. Sasha and her baby Blake are sometimes seen in the garden but don't automatically come over to the house when they see a human.
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| Sasha (left) and Blake (right) - 1st Sept 2021 [Photo by Xesce] |
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| Blake back-riding on Sasha - 1st Sept 2021 [Photo by Xesce] |
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| Sasha (left) and Blake (right) - 8th Sept 2021 [Photo by Xesce] |
Pax, who previously used box 3 and occasionally 1 seems to be have been pushed further out. She has used these boxes only a couple of times recently and only rarely visits the house. The last time she visited box 1, she brought leaves in wrapped in her tail; but then thought better of it and took them out again. I have never seen a possum do this before. Maybe she worked out that Sasha had been using the box more frequently than she anticipated, and didn't want to make the box comfortable just for Sasha's benefit.
Pax bringing leaves into and then out of Box 1 - 11th Sept 2021
Some bad news is that sometime in the latter half of August Pax lost her baby. I have no idea how this happened; one night she just turned up with an empty pouch. At the time I had hoped she had left the little one somewhere safe, This is an unusual thing for brushtails to do with babies that young, but all possums are different so you never know. Unfortunately, however, the baby was never seen again. :(
Despite this, Pax looked healthy when last seen and may possibly have a new baby in the pouch.
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| Pax - 25th Aug 2021 [Photo by Xesce] |
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| Pax - 12th Sept 2021 |
Shane has been banished to the front of the house and now is only seen in box 2 which is in that area.
She now visits the house so rarely that the only new photo of her is one looking out of her nestbox.
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| Shane in Box 2 - 25th Sept 2021 |
Here are some screen shots from inside her nestbox, showing how her baby (Jedi) is growing.
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| Shane and Jedi in box 2 - 9th Sept 2021 |
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| Shane and Jedi in box 2 - 20th Sept 2021 |
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| Shane and Jedi in box 2 - 30th Sept 2021 |
Jedi has grown up to the extent that she is back-riding for part of the night. Shane has only brought Jedi to the house twice so far and both times very briefly. Recently, Wink was harassing Shane and Jedi in the front garden. Jedi got separated from Shane and Wink attacked her. Fortunately, her Jedi powers were strong and she escaped without injury.
Tonight Jedi got separated from Shane again due to some more harassment from Wink and that is why there is a photo of Jedi or her own at the start of this post. Normally a baby of this age would be back-riding or in the pouch.
Marcel is still visiting and seems relatively unaffected by the territorial dispute among the females. He has been seen sleeping in both boxes 1 and 7 - so he is allowed in both Wink's and Sasha's territory.
Walt, however, has been making himself scarce. He suddenly appeared one night after several weeks absence and looked to be in good health, but now hasn't been seen for a while.
As I mentioned in the last blog post, I have built two new boxes - boxes 5 and 8 - to hopefully make life easier for the possums. They are a slightly simplified version of the design I used for the replacement box 1.
Box 8 was installed on the 28th Sept. This was put on the other side of the front garden to box 2. I am hoping this will give Shane an extra sleeping spot - and one with enough room for an active and growing baby.
It was difficult to get a good photo of this box; from most angles the front is obscured by foliage.
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| Possum Box 8 - 28th Sept 2021 |
Currently no possums have visited this box.
Box 5 was installed yesterday. The temperature sensor has not been hooked up yet. Owing to difficulties in getting cabling to this box, the temperature sensor has to piggy-back off wiring in box 1, and I need to make sure there are no possums in box 1 when I connect it up. This box is in the back garden, roughly half way between boxes 1 and 3. I am hoping this might entice Pax back into the area.
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| Possum Box 5 - 1st Oct 2021 |
To make it easier to see an overview of the boxes, I have modified the Box Overview page on the webcam site to be "responsive". That is to say it tries to fit as many boxes across the available screen width as it can. Please let me know if you have any problems with viewing this page.
Last month a neighbour cut down some trees in their yard. I warned the tree lopper to take care because ringtails had been seen nesting in one of the earmarked trees.
The next day I saw a mother with two baby ringtails in the backyard. I think they might be refugees from the tree felling - but at least they survived unscathed.
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| Mother and baby ringtails - 19th Aug 2021 |
Finally, the brush turkeys are doing well and all look healthy. Merlin is maintaining his mound and recently it looked like a female was laying eggs in it.
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