Ringtail Possum Nest

We have been busy trying to get our trees under control in our suburban block. It has been a very long time since we tackled this and the trees have got to the stage where we needed to bring them down to a level where we can get some sunlight into the house/yard. There are 4 lilly pillies on the fenceline and two of these are quite large about 6-7metres high. My birdwing butterfly vine had also wound itself up on of these trees so we decided to take it down to a reasonable level and take the vine off this tree just leaving it on the fence. The first smaller branch covered in the vine came down to a flurry of frantic activity from above. Out from the high enclosed space flew three ringtail possums. They had apparently made their nest in the vine which was way up to the top of the tree.this is the best view I could get of the ‘nest’.

We had no idea they were living there! Although I did photograph a ringtail possum a while back. Consequently the tree is still there but not sure about the possums – think we might need to make a possum nesting boxes to keep these ones safe – especially from a very large and nasty neighbourhood cat!

Here is the largest of the three ringtail possums – the other two disappeared back into the nest – I must say he/she was not looking impressed!