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Day two of The Big Twitch.
A trip to the marvellous Melbourne Botanic Gardens helped add
seventeen birds to the list, including Song Thrush, Nankeen Night Heron
and Bell Miner. The removal programme for the Grey Headed Flying Foxes
hasn't been fully successful as there were still hundreds in residence in the
fern gully and also a pair of what I think were Brown Rats (Rattus
norvegicus). Garden authorities claim the bats are damaging the trees, but
I wonder how many trees are being damaged by the proliferation of Bell Miners-
they seem to have colonies throughout the gardens and if there is nowhere else
for them to go, they are sure to reach critical mass soon.
That brings the total after two days to 42- an average of
twenty -one species a day. At this rate I should reach seven hundred in
early February!
Tomorrow I head off to Port Fairy for a bit of work, so I'm
not sure how much birding I can get in, but as the work involves some filming in
a swamp, hopefull I'll be able to add a couple to the total.
Will fill you in on how I go in a couple of days.
Cheers, Sean
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