Hi Nina
Thanks for your detailed observations. I hope someone with more
knowledge of Crested Pigeons can respond to your interesting question -
I can't find an answer in any of the books I own ( I don't have HANZAB,
which would almost certainly answer the q). HINT: Someone else on
b-aus might like to look this up in HANZAB!!
I'm reading a fascinating book at the moment (Secret Life of Wombats,
by James Woodford - no relation :-) ) and in it he describes how a boy
at Timbertop in 1960 started observing wombats. He spent his whole
Timbertop year diving down burrows, and more importantly, observing the
minute details of wombat lives. He wrote up his observations and won a
minor science prize, but more importantly, contributed much to the body
of scientific knowledge. The wombat had been largely ignored until
Peter Nicholson's observations in 1960, and his work is still regarded
very highly.
The point is - there are huge gaps in what we know about Australian
animals and birds, and many of those gaps have been, and will be filled
in part by observers with enquiring minds, keen observation skills, and
patience.
Crested Pigs are a favourite of mine, partly because they have recently
expanded into my home area. They now breed here on the Geelong
Grammar, Corio campus.
Keep up the great work Nina!
Russell Woodford
Birding-Aus List 'Incubator'
Geelong Victoria Australia
http://www.birding-aus.org
On 06/05/2004, at 5:27 PM, The Bugtusslebunch wrote:
Hi Birding-Ausers
My name is Nina and I'm 17. I live with my family on 5 acres 30km NW
of Wauchope on the Mid North Coast, NSW. I've been on the list since
March and have really enjoyed reading all your emails. I love hearing
about peoples "adventures" with birds, good places to go birding and
just about anything else to do with birds!!
I got the "bird craze" when I was 11 and since then it's been nothing
but birds, birds and more birds. My list needs four more ticks to
reach 200, so I'm really keen for Dad and Mum to take me to new bird
locations so I can tick those last ones before I turn 18!!!!
I had a pretty cool experience today. Last month a pair of Crested
Pigeons nested at the top of a large wattle growing about 40m from the
house. We have a wooden platform (not made for watching pigeons!) in
that wattle and the nest is only 2m above it, so I climbed up today to
check it out, as the young Pigeon fledged last week. After I'd had a
good look at it (the usual ridiculous structure) I sat there quietly
and watched 3 Straw-necked Ibis in the next paddock, when suddenly the
young bird flew onto a branch nearby and one of its parents flew
in lower down. The young one knew I was there, but after a few minutes
of bobbing its head an eyeing me off it walked all the way down the
branch and stopped 2 feet from my head, looked at me and then made its
way down the tree, jumping from branch to branch, to its parent. I
though that was awesome, as usually I have to get close to them and
they're not very obliging most of the time!!
What I would like to know is: do Crested Pigeons (or pigeons in
general) share nesting duties or is it just one of the parents? During
March I observed both parents in the tree several times, but since the
young has fledged I've only seen one parent with it (the two of them
roost in the wattle everyday at midday).
Thanks,
Nina :-)
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