The Tree Blog

Archive for December, 2008

It seems that cmmunity Christmas trees are not universally loved.

A central Queensland town has had its celebratory tree “demonised” with satanic messages, while the Summer Hill community in Brisbane found its Christmas tree deliberately lit on fire.

Three frogmouths up the tree

Last week I was on this block doing a land clear when I took this great picture of three Tawny Frogmouth (owls) on Alphitonia excelsa (red ash) in Riverhills, Brisbane.   We left this tree standing until the end of the day.  We used a pole saw to tilt the branch that they were on and they were happy to fly away.

If you come across these guys on a removal, it is important to leave it until as late in the day as possible.  This is because they have night eyes and don’t see very well and the local minor birds give them a really hard time.   According to the neighbour they had been residing in his grey gum which remains.  The grey gum had recently shed its annual bark and meant that they weren’t as camouflaged as they normally would be, it was only a temporary roost, as normally they would select a tree which provided better daytime refuge.

I got a great chance to see these fantastic birds close up whilst I was working on an adjacent tree.

Recent wet weather caused a large gum tree in Olinda, Victoria to fall on a house and destroy much of it.