Apologies to those on birding-aus who are fed up with this thread but I
had to respond to Pat.
In Bayside, not far from Hawthorn, we have quite good records of birds
seen over the last 40-50 years. Species which have gone (or almost gone)
as breeding or regular winter residents over the last 20 years include:
Flame Robin, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Red-browed Finch, New Holland
Honeyeater, Eastern Yellow Robin. All small ground-feeding birds and
all (I think) on the list of birds killed by domestic cats in Paton's
South Australian work. Superb Fairy-wrens, Silvereyes and White-browed
Scrubwrens have also declined.
This does not seem to be because of habitat changes because the Brown
Thornbill (which concentrates on higher vegetation) has increased in
numbers.
Using figures from Paton and PIAS (the petfood company-sponsored
organisation) the annnual bird kill here is very roughly 30,000 which is
roughly the average number of bush birds in the area and, again roughly,
the number of young that would survive under "natural" circumstances.
Congratulations, then, to the Victorian government which has
strengthened controls on cats and is now proposing to allow them to be
killed in reserves.
There is also a very welcome continuing decline in cat ownership and a
very high rate of de-sexing.
Michael Norris
|
