From Dorrigo down to the coast at Mylestom, a stopover picked at random. Now this is a very birdy spot, south of Coff’s and in between Bongil Bongil NP and the mouth of the Bellenger River. “March” Flies a bit of a hazard. Apart from anything else it could be a great spot to monitor the effect of the Spotted Dove. Joe Forshaw (who has just had his first Canberra SD in his garden) thinks that the chief victim of that disliked species might be not the rampant Crested Pigeon but the Bar-shouldered Dove. In the vicinity of the Mylestom caravan park there was an estimated population of 60 Crested Pigeons, 40 White-headeds, 20 Bar-shouldereds and 4-6 Spotteds, the latter mainly haunting and calling from the denser veg. As it happens all these come together when seed is offered at an open space. The species show no particular aggression to one another but defer on the basis of size - all fleeing before the Brush Turkeys. (I shall spare you the picture.) It would be interesting to see whether in , say, 10 years relative numbers of Spotteds and Bar-shouldereds have changed significantly at that site.
