Undergraduate days

["Geoffrey Dabb" <>]

If that is indeed typical, I am surprised by the restraint shown by the current generation of local I Mynas.  At my residential college at Melbourne U, each Spring an orgy of mating by the Melbourne Mynas took place on the college lawns.  This was so obvious, with 2 or more pairs at a time squatting back on their tails, balanced by outspread wings, and making awkward hops at and onto one another, that students with no interest in birds were amazed at the prolonged performances.

 

Almost exactly THIRTY years before, a couple of kms away towards the zoo, David Fleay was keeping his extremely vocal Powerful Owl in the quadrangle of HIS college.  Anyone who wants to read about this, and his detailed first-hand accounts of Powerful Owl behaviour, can do so in Fleay’s ‘Nightwatchmen of Bush and Plain’.   His experience with and understanding of these owls forms a strange contrast to these days when the sternly-policed faecies-watching school of owl-observation is the fashion.       

 

From: Esme Barker & Bruce Ramsay [
Sent: Saturday, 23 June 2007 11:49 AM
To: martin butterfield
Cc: Canberrabirds
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Common Myna Breeding

 

Hello Martin.

Thank you very much for this - it certainly does show a pretty marked seasonality to breeding.

 

They certainly DO appreciate their privacy, it would seem. I am rather surprised that no co records have ever been reported to the GBS. I will certainly note it on my chart when I bring it to you at the next meeting.

 

To be honest with you, maybe its not reported because it simply isn't observed. This pair was on the top of a street light and it was only about 20 minutes after sunrise ie after it got light enough to see clearly. The actual copulation was what I would describe as "blink and you'll miss it". The preliminaries leading to it were hardly more spectacular. The birds flew to the top of the electric light cover and one (the female as it turned out) crouched. The second bird stood quite near and after about 30 seconds or so, made 2 pecking motions at the crouching bird. I didn't see clearly as to whether or not he actually pecked her, but I don't think so. A brief pause was followed by copulation, shortly after which the female stood and then flew off, to be followed by the male several seconds later.

 

If thats all there really is to Myna mating then I guess it could be one reason why co hasn't been reported to the GBS.

 

Bruce