Alan, Greg
It's reports like this that make the general public think it's ok to rubbish
Ibis. This is about a 'humane' way to kill off the eggs of an 'aggressive'
species. I can't think of anything more aggressive than a species that will
kill off another's young.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/11/2056320.htm
The Australian ibis, with its white body plumage, black head and neck and
long curved bill, is a common bird in north and east Australia and more
often than not, it is near a rubbish bin near you.
The reason for that is that its usual feeding and breeding areas in the
western wetlands have dried out.
But researchers have found a way they say that is 100 per cent effective in
controlling the nuisance species and it involves common cooking oil, but not
a cooking pot, thankfully.
The same method can be applied to other bird pests like starlings, pigeons
and Indian mynas.
Sydney's Centennial Park is a swathe of green in the heart of the city but
at the moment it is also a hot bed of hormones.
On a small island in the middle of one of the park's lakes, several hundred
ibis are busy attracting a mate.
They are honking and lifting their wings to reveal a red streak, a sign that
the bird is ready to breed.
Professor Joan Dawes is from Pestat, a group that develops ways to control
pest species.
She first came across egg oiling in the United States during a visit to the
Department of Agriculture.
The Americans had just finished trials using everyday cooking oil to coat
the eggs of Canada geese and seagulls.
The idea is that the baby bird is starved of oxygen inside the egg and the
egg never hatches.
"They're quite big and quite aggressive birds. They'll eat anything at all
and they'll also just walk up to little kids and take a sandwich or an
ice-cream out of their hands and probably peck them in the process," she
said.
"So it was a particularly easy, cheap, simple process and I thought that it
might be worth trying here in Australia."
John Martin is one of the park rangers in Sydney's Centennial Park and he
has had a 100 per cent success rate on his first trial of egg oiling.
Birds nesting on one island in the park had their eggs sprayed with the oil
and none of them hatched.
The birds also did not return to that island for the next breeding season.
"The common technique used is nest and egg destruction and when you do that
the birds - what we've observed is that ibis commonly just re-nest," he
said.
"So it's a lot of effort for them to build another nest and then lay another
clutch of eggs, so with the oiling technique it actually stops them from
laying another clutch of eggs.
"They continue to incubate the eggs which they've already laid, but they're
not going to hatch."
Professor Dawes says the only thing that can be concluded is that as a
social, nesting species they communicate with each other.
"Word got out that this was not a good place to nest and that they weren't
going to rear young if they did nest there," she said.
But it seems that warning message was only passed on among ibis, not other
bird species.
On the trial island, cormorants are now breeding in fig trees and a camphor
laurel tree 20 metres above where the ibis had their eggs oiled.
The researchers also say egg oiling may be a cheap and effective way for
city councils to eradicate problem birds like the ibis and potentially
starlings and pigeons.
"One of the advantages of this is that it's a food oil and so there are
absolutely no health or safety or environmental consequences to its use,"
Professor Dawes said.
"You could just go to the supermarket and buy the canola oil and use that."
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of Gregory Little
Sent: Thursday, 10 January 2008 4:38 PM
To: 'alan morris';
Subject: White Ibis studies in Sydney Region
Gooday Alan and all
Just as an aside re Ibis, I was recently out on a daily walk along the
back of Maryland on the edge of Hexham Swamp (near Newcastle, NSW) and
as I passed a fellow walker I commented on how good it was to see the
White Ibis nesting in a patch of nearby Paperbarks. He answered very
shortly "that they are a pest and steal food and bother people". I
assumed he meant those Ibis in Sydney at the Zoo and Hyde Park etc.
Greg Little
Greg Little - Principal Consultant
General Flora and Fauna
PO Box 526
Wallsend, NSW, 2287, Australia
Ph 02 49 556609
Fx 02 49 556671
www.gff.com.au
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of alan morris
Sent: Thursday, 10 January 2008 4:17 PM
To:
Subject: White Ibis studies in Sydney Region
Hi Birders,
Can anyone tell me who to contact in respect to the colour-banding
project
of breeding White Ibis in the Sydney region?
A contact of mine has been recording band numbers and colours, and
wants to
know to whom he should pass on the details?
Alan Morris
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