I think the watercourse involved is Sullivan’s Creek and ultimately Lake Burley Griffin, although exactly how it got into Sullivan’s Creek, which I think at that point in its journey, is via an underground storm water channel which emerges at Southwell Park on Mouat Street in Lyneham, is something of a mystery. My feelings, and something I was told several years ago, was that the golfers (not all of them) complained about the smell and dirty balls. Mark From: Martin Butterfield [
Sent: Monday, 3 November 2014 5:17 PM
To: David Cook
Cc: chatline
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Australian White Ibis breeding I think there was rather more outrage on this chatline than in the main bar at Yowani. Out of pure interest, the official reason given for the ibisicide was the way they were polluting some watercourse or another. I have never seen anything emerge to show whether the health of the watercourse improved dramatically as a result of the removal of the ibises, or whether the crappy condition of the water remained as it was due to some other reason (and I would not dream of blaming the fertilisers thrown around on the golf course).
On 3 November 2014 16:48, David Cook <m("bigpond.net.au","cookdj");" target="_blank">> wrote: You are of course referring to the FORMER Australian White Ibis breeding colony at Yowani – that colony was deliberately destroyed a couple of years ago to very little fanfare either on this chatline or anyone else really. Environmental vandalism at its worst - a classic case of “not in my backyard”. Sent: Monday, November 03, 2014 4:27 PM Subject: [canberrabirds] Australian White Ibis breeding Good afternoon all, Yesterday (Sunday) I took my wife out to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve to show her a live platypus, a species she had never seen in the wild before. We had excellent looks at a single animal on the “weir pond” just after the top entry to the “Sanctuary”. Before moving down to the weir I spent a couple of minutes looking out from the viewing platform near the beginning of the walk, I could hear numerous squeaking calls coming from the pond at the front and below the platform that sounded like chicks of some sort. After watching an Australian White Ibis fly in to the area I finally managed to see one bird feeding at least two small black chicks. Today at around 1pm , I received an email from Pam Cooke, a volunteer at Tidbinbilla NR, letting me know that Australian White Ibis were breeding on Pond 2. I know of one other site in Canberra where AWI have bred (Yowani Golf Course near North Lyneham), and am aware of the records on the Federal Highway that have been placed on the chat line. I replied to Pam advising her that this was an important record and that I would put in an “Incidental Report Record” to COG. While there I also noticed a Dusky Moorhen nest building in what I think is the “Brolga Pond”. I will also put in a record for this as well. mark |
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