Spotted (Turtle) Doves

["Philip Veerman" <>]

I would say never say never but attributing a reduction in water dragon population to predation on little ones by pigeons is a long stretch. It would seem hugely unlikely to be any connection there.

 

Feral pigeons are variously regarded as a pest in many places around the world. So a lot of consideration has gone into that. Encouragement of Peregrine Falcons is a help but not a control.........

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Alberta Hayes [
Sent: Monday, 31 January 2011 11:29 AM
To: Philip Veerman
Cc: Lia Battisson;
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Spotted (Turtle) Doves

Hi everyone,
Further to the
discussion about the STDs and their growing numbers, here in the South I believe
that feral pigeons are becoming increasingly common as well. I've no data to
back this up, only anecdotal sightings of more and more underpasses and such
nesting sites becoming used by the pigeons.  

There are two
particular locations that spring to mind that demonstrate both the prevalence
and the ongoing issues that feral pigeons can cause.  One is at the back
end of McCulloch street in Curtin.  A couple of years ago I was very happy
to see that there were a great number of water dragons along the creek near the
horse paddocks. My uncle lives along McCulloch and this Christmas I suggested a
walk to see the water dragons and he said that there was no point. He hadn't
seen any in a while. There is a large flock of pigeons along that stretch of
creek and perhaps they have been eating the little ones? The little dragons were
not afraid of people, perhaps their downfall was that they were not afraid of
pigeons either?

The other place I am seeing pigeons more and more is
along the edge of Monash, Oxley and Greenway. A couple of years ago, the only
flock around belonged to someone in Monash who keeps them as pets. I'm unsure as
to whether they are homing pigeons or not, but they certainly seemed to fly
around the one house. Over the last two years, the feral pigeons have been
slowly going from underpass to underpass. At the same time this has been 
happening, there has been a sharp reduction in the number of Welcome Swallows
and Martins that we see along the lake and pond.  I know of two Welcome
Swallow nests that no longer are in use that are right next to pigeon flocks.

One question, is there an effective trap that we could use to rid
Canberra of both STDs and Feral pigeons?  I don't think this would take
away from CIMAG at all. If anything, inaction due to not wanting to step on
CIMAG's toes would be much worse than taking the action needed.

Sorry for
babbling a bit!
Alberta.