May Notes

[martin butterfield <>]

G'day Peter and others

First of all, a small apology for sending my earlier message to the entire list rather than, as my brain intended but my flying fingers forgot, just to the editors of Gang-gang.  

As I said in the element about S(T)Ds the issues raised by the invasive nature of this species are covered in a recent Whimsy and a previous article by Ian Fraser in Gang-gang.  Rather than try to paraphrase Ian's articles - about which I agree with Geoffrey's words below - I have attached the earlier article for people's ease of reference (the Whimsy is easily accessible from the COG Website).

Martin

On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 3:30 PM, Geoffrey Dabb <> wrote:

This morning i noticed that the 5 mallard hybrids that haunt the carillon area had moved upstream and crossed a busy road and were rooting around at the base of the traffic lights at one of the busiest intersections in Canberra.

 

Re the SD, Ian Fraser’s frequent postings on the dangers of this species have been a model of environmental advocacy, becoming more sharply honed with each airing.

 

From: Peter Ormay [
Sent: Monday, 25 May 2009 2:48 PM
To: martin butterfield; COG List

Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] May Notes

 

Hi Martin,

 

Thank you for extracting the info on Spotted Doves.

 

I think I missed most of the discussion on the species.  What kind of problems do Spotted Doves pose to the environment, other species and the economy i e possible spread of poultry diseases by visiting poultry yards etc?  Should we be concerned about their increase?

 

The writing was on the wall with Indian Mynas (i e what a pest they were in areas where they were abundant) when they were first noted in Manuka but neither the local government nor COG were concerned about them.  If they were they didn't do anything about them.

 

When I started working in the Wildlife Research unit ca 1984 one of my first tasks was to remove feral ducks (mallards and it's various colour forms) and geese from the local lakes at the instigation of COG because they were concerned that Mallards would hybridise with the Black Ducks and the geese may go feral. Their removal was quite successfull.  In NZ there are hardly any pure Black Ducks left due to hybridisation with the introduced Mallards and feral geese are abundant.

 

If it turns out that there is good evidence that Spotted Doves are a threat to native species and/or the economy then in my humble opinion, COG should make it known to the local government and persue the matter .

 

Cheers

Peter Ormay 

----- Original Message -----

From:

To:

Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 10:08 AM

Subject: [canberrabirds] May Notes

 

Folks

Herewith my article for this month.

Martin

---

*******************************************************************************************************