Last year in 2009/10 late breeding season (April) Michael Lenz reported on the large number of nesting Noisy Miners in the ANU. He mentioned that he hadn’t seen any breeding elsewhere including Ainslie area. Then in the early 2010/11 season (September) he found many breeding in Ainslie/O’connor (not sure if this is in the suburbs or nearby bush).
Yesterday afternoon Noisy Miners dominated the lower slopes of Mt Majura near the Grayson/Mackenzie Sts carpark. I didn’t go far but two NM breeding sites were within 50m of the entrance, one with two nestlings, the other three dependent young keeping their parents very busy. Since they are so dominant in many areas now, I was wondering if COG has developed any policy or discussion about affirmative action against NMs similar to what was discussed in Victoria?
As well as NMs being almost the only bird you could hear at this spot, I witnessed a Noisy Friarbird that was eventually driven away from its attempts to call from a dead treetop by one, then three, NMs. The photo shows a misleading moment in which the friarbird appeared to have the upper hand, but it’d just been bounced off the tip of the branch by the miner who had come up from underneath, upside down, and I think got claws on the friarbird.
The nest included a noticeable amount of man-made stuff – string, twine, twist-tie, wire.
Julian
www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/
