COME JOIN US at the Landcare Office with the Naturalist bird watching group for a bird and fauna nest building information and demonstration event with Matt Stephens. Matt is the inventor of the 'HollowHog' device and he will introduce his technique of installing tree hollows and identifying suitable Eucalypts. 

The HollowHog efficiently and safely creates large internal cavities through small entry holes in both living and dead wood. No other damage to the tree’s cambium (living tissue) occurs through the carving process meaning that there is little disruption to a tree’s growth.

What is HollowHog? The HollowHog creates a 50 mm entry hole and then progressively carves a larger and larger hollow of any dimensions up to about 600mm wide and long by 600mm deep. The hollow shape can be easily adapted to the size and shape of the tree limb or trunk that it is being carved in.

As an example, during our Bird hollow building workshop last year, a 300mm long by 200 mm wide by 350 mm deep hollow was carved through a 50 mm entry hole in less than half an hour.

The entry hole size and shape can be targeted to any avian or fauna species through carving a larger entry hole and/or adding entry modifiers to reduce the size back down to as small as needed. There are many reports of larger more aggressive species displacing smaller hollow occupants where a hollows entrance is big enough for them to get in. This enables the device to create species-specific nesting holes.

Please meet at the Landcare Office.

A light lunch will be provided, but please bring water, a hat, sun glasses and covered-in shoes.