John and Daryl
Removing nests wouldn't stop them building another one I don't think but
this needs testing or is there evidence that it does? Removing chicks
certainly doesn't stop them laying another clutch. A couple of years ago I
removed a clutch of advanced chicks from a nest box in the Pinnacle NR
behind the houses in Hawker while checking the nest boxes after Kate
Grarock's PhD study was finished. They had laid another clutch a month
later.
The mynas have been removed from the eastern and most the western part of
Aranda through trapping alone I think. I did the nest box checking in Aranda
for Kate's PhD study and no-one to my knowledge removed any myna nests from
the nest boxes in the area.
There was a group of about 6 mynas in the Aranda Snow Gums area and a
similar group south of the Bindubi St x William Hovell Dr intersection as
well as one in the Aranda Bushland south of Mirning Crescent before the
trapping started. These groups disappeared once the trapping got going. I
think they went back into the adjacent suburbs once the myna numbers there
thinned.
It is heartening to know there are lots of traps in Fraser but trap density
does not necessarily mean trapping activity. People stop trapping for
various reasons. We need someone to check how many people there are still
trapping.
What is the trap density in Franklin, Harrison, Palmerston, Crace, Ngunnawal
and Nicholls and adjacent to Mulligans Flat in Forde?
Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: John Harris
Sent: Monday, 4 August 2014 9:18 AM
To: Daryl King; Peter Ormay;
Subject: 30 superbs at the mosque
Of course you are right Daryl but the truth is that I am doubtful enough
that ?we? (whoever that really is) could actually recruit people to remove
nests but I hope I am wrong. I am too old or I might have tried already on
Percival Hill. We need to do what little we can in the most strategic way.
What I feel is that we should at least try to trap mynas which forage on the
edge of suburbs like mine which border more natural environments. I have
observed them naturalised on Percival Hill and they fly there when
disturbed.
On 3/08/2014 7:13 pm, "Daryl King" <> wrote:
>Peter,
>
>The last time I checked (a couple of years back), Fraser already had
>the 17th highest density of traps in Canberra (out of 91 suburbs with
>registered traps). At 5.6 trap-sites per km2, Fraser's trap density
>was then already well above the average density of 3.7 traps per km2.
>For comparison, trap density in Fraser was then about the same as in
>Aranda, and was higher than in Chapman (5.4), Melba (4.8), and Kambah
(4.7).
>
>The problem that we want to address here is the mynas' monopolising of
>nest cavities. There would seem to be little point in increasing the
>use of a method that targets only the mynas' foraging behaviour -
>especially in circumstances where an increasing number of mynas are
>able to avoid or defeat our foraging traps - while doing nothing about
>its nesting behaviour.
>
>Mynas do not continue to nest in places where their nests are regularly
>disturbed. We know that because we can stop them nesting in our roofs
>and nestboxes by removing their nests. If we put our minds to it, and
>recruit some people with the necessary skills and training, I'm sure we
>could develop a system for strategic removal of myna nests in priority
>areas. Mynas are excellent judges of risk, and would quickly get the
>message. In any event, their bulky nests would have to be removed
>before Superb Parrots (or any other parrots) would use the affected
>cavities.
>
>Daryl
>
>
>On 3/08/2014 6:25 PM, Peter Ormay wrote:
>> Do any COG members live in the areas where Superbs have been recorded
>>who would be willing to operate a myna trap to reduce the competition
>>they pose to the Superbs?
>> Peter
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Daryl King
>> Sent: Saturday, 2 August 2014 7:08 PM
>> To:
>> Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] 30 superbs at the mosque
>>
>> Some good news: Despite successive waves of irresponsible clearing,
>> northern Belconnen (including the area covered by Fraser) still
>> contains quite a few hollow-bearing remnant eucs - mostly in a band
>> above the 600 metre contour (see attached (incomplete) map). Superb
>> Parrots have inspected hollows throughout the area in each of the
>> past three breeding seasons.
>>
>> Some bad news: 1/3 to 2/3 of hollow trees in northern Belconnen are
>>occupied by Common Mynas each year. In those circumstances, it is
>>highly unlikely that Superb Parrots will re-establish a breeding
>>population there.
>>
>> Daryl
>>
>> On 2/08/2014 1:20 PM, Mark Clayton wrote:
>>> In the late 1960's, early 1970's Superb Parrots were a common
>>> species in the area that is now covered by the suburb of Fraser. I
>>> used to know people who owned a property there and Superb Parrots
>>> commonly bred in some huge old Yellow Box trees. There was also what
>>> was probably Canberra's last colony of Grey-crowned Babblers present
>>> on site. The parrots then appeared to die out for quite a while and
>>> it is only in the last decade that they appear to have made a
>>> comeback to the northern part of the ACT. How long they will stay
>>> remains to be seen as they do tend to follow food resources around.
>>> The breaking of the drought has probably had quite a bit to do with the
birds return.
>>> On the other hand the ACT Government has done nothing to help them
>>>
>>> by clearing large areas of suitable habitat for housing. From
>>> memory, someone once said that of the 95 mature Yellow Box and Red
>>> Gums in the now
>>>
>>> suburb of Crace, 80 were removed for housing. Several years ago I
>>> travelled along the road that borders Mulligan's Flat NR and was
>>> horrified to see that every tree up to the reserves' boundary had
>>> been flattened. As I pointed out to Chris Davey at the time he was
>>> doing surveys to record breeding sites for the parrots, it is a
>>> totally useless exercise to find nests if all their food trees are
>>> being knocked over. This is what is happening with Regent Parrots
>>> along the Murray River. They breed in the River Red Gums and feed in
>>> the mallee which is still being cleared for agriculture. They are
>>> having to move
>> further and further to find feeding sites.
>>> I will be interested to see what happens with the Superb Parrots as
>>> Canberra continues to move into critical habitat in the newer
>>> Gungahlin suburbs. The ACT Government plans for so-called "offsets"
>>> is a farce and so is their so-called "solar orientation "policy
>>> which is one of the reasons the trees
>>>
>>> in Crace were removed. All the old Eucalypts near the Gungahlin Town
>>> centre will be dead within the next 50 years and nothing appears to
>>> have been done to start potentially replacing them. As soon a
>>> building goes up near them they will be removed as potential hazards.
>>>
>>> The older I get the more cynical I become about governments and
>>> their "environmental" policies. I don't think any of them really have a
clue!
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: John Harris
>>> Sent: Saturday, 2 August 2014 12:18 PM
>>> To:
>>> Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] 30 superbs at the mosque
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> It¹s gratifying to see the Superbs becoming more visible in Gungahlin.
>>> They have been nesting here in Mulligans Flat for years but were
>>> rare in Gungahlin suburbia until the last couple of years and now
>>> quite large flocks this year. They visit Percival Hill now in
>>> numbers and I put it down to the maturing of the trees planted by
>>> landcare folk in the late 1990s which are
>>>
>>> now virtually a mature woodland environment.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2/08/2014 11:57 am, "Peter Ormay" <> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello Chris
>>>>
>>>> Yesterday 1-8-14 I watched about a maximum of 30 Superbs near the 3
>>>> large Yellow Box trees E mell. at the South end of Kate Crace St
>>>> from 9.20am to 10.30am feeding on the ground mainly in native
>>>> dominated vegetation in strong cold west wind. I could not see what
>>>> they were feeding on due to the height of the grass.
>>>>
>>>> It included a female-looking bird with yellow flecks on its back.
>>>>
>>>> The numbers fluctuated as flocks of 8 to 15 SPs flew off South and
>>>> NE but seemed to return. They seemed skittish while on the ground,
>>>> possibly due to the strong wind, flying up into the adjacent Yellow
>>>> Boxes at any disturbance such as a Wood Duck nesting in the Eastern
>>>> Yellow Box flying over them but they soon came down again.
>>>>
>>>> They were feeding mainly between the northern fence (with plain
>>>> wires) and the inner (with 2 barbed and 3 smooth wires) fence. They
>>>> also fed south of the inner fence but all within 20m of the Yellow
>>>> Boxes
>>>>
>>>> Peter Ormay
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Bill & Raelene
>>>> Sent: Sunday, 20 July 2014 12:22 PM
>>>> To:
>>>> Subject: [canberrabirds] 30 superbs at the mosque
>>>>
>>>> Gungahlin Town Centre survey with Angela Plant today. 30 Superbs
>>>> 0910-0930 in large eucs beside mosque site , sth end Kate Crace St.
>>>> Feeding on the ground, noisy, hanging about, roosting site? Low
>>>>morning sun gives them a startling, flouro green glow. Total 21
>>>>species.
>>>> Bill Graham
>>>>
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