Discouragements

[Michael Lenz <>]

There is a nice account by F.J. Gay of  the "avian ball thieves" and their impact in Canberra Bird Notes8 (3) (1983), 90-91

One cache  at Black Mt contained 3 dozen golf balls! The author also states that coloured balls are taken in preference to white ones.

Michael Lenz

On 3 June 2015 at 14:58, Geoffrey Dabb <> wrote:

This general subject has been raised more than once in the past, but I might record that on my return this week, after many years, to the golf course (my aged person’s orienteering program being interrupted by a temporary medical condition) I found that on two visits to Royal Narrabundah an A Raven picked up and dropped my ball, on the second occasion (today) picking it up again and flying off with it, out of sight.   On each occasion the ball was orange.  My companion suggested ‘they like coloured balls’, but when I queried the evidence for that statement it amounted only to a single instance involving a yellow ball at Bowral some years ago.  The problem now is that when one has difficulty locating one’s ball, one has a nagging suspicion that a bird might have flown off with it.  This adds to the other discouragements that frequently attend this particular activity.  On Monday my (different) companion’s ball struck an Australian Wood Duck, not a surprising development, given the numbers grazing on the fairways.