I forgot to provide an alert that the Garrad Reserve, which includes a
short board walk through a coastal wetland, appears to be a tick
paradise: two dogs had died of tick bites in the fortnight preceding my
visit.
regards
Con
On 20/10/2015 9:12 AM, Con Boekel wrote:
> My experience is that where you get Common Mynas you still get other
> birds, but that as Noisy Miners move in other birds move out, and that
> where Noisy Miners dominate you don't get other birds at all.
>
> This personal experience reflects general realities which are
> well-documented in the literature.
>
> Reading Tim Low's 'The Origin of Song' there was an ominous snippet
> that Noisy Miners are now moving into, and dominating, non-eucalypt
> habitats. Tim's comment that they were like humans was not a comfort.
>
> I recently spent a few days in Narawallee on the coast near Nowra were
> I was able to spend considerable time in Garrad Reserve (highly
> recommended for birdoes, by the way). On the way back we had
> breakfast, al fresco, at Milton. Both are Noisy Miner free. It was so
> refreshing to see so many native species and so many of each species.
> Even the cheeping of House Sparrows, nesting in the Milton built
> environment, felt sort of good!
>
> I recently spent a few days in Campbell Park. The area around the
> Horse Gate with its mature Yellow Box, numerous hollows, good
> mistletoe loads and numerous wild cherries is one of the best spots
> for observing Box Woodland avifauna in the ACT. It is used for the
> annual COG nest outing for this reason. Campbell Park is also a
> hotspot for ornithological research including, currently, research
> into cuckoo parasitism of Yellow-rumped Thornbills, and the social
> behaviour of White-winged Choughs, both in the context of the theory
> of evolution.
>
> The mess of Miners based near the car park are expanding north and
> have reached the edge of the Horse Gate area. Miners are now chasing
> birds from, for example, the vicinity of the Owlet Nightjar Tree. In
> the Horse Gate area I saw Miners harassing the White-throated
> Gerygones, Dusky Woodswallows and White-winged Trillers. Within days
> the Dusky Woodswallows had reduced from around a dozen arrivals to
> perhaps two pairs, one each hanging on just north and just south of
> the Horse Gate. I am not sure what the situation is now. I counted 9
> male Trillers on their arrival. They were staking out their song
> territories, mostly south of the Horse Gate, and it will be
> interesting to see whether they can hang on for another season. The
> area where White-browed Woodswallows bred last year is now more or
> less the border marches of the Empire of Noisy Miners.
>
> Tree death, often associated with masssive loads of insects/lerps,
> possibly associated with our avian lerps farmers, is depriving the Box
> Woodland birds of habitat in Campbell Park at a rapid rate.
>
> Based on current trends of Noisy Miner expansion within Campbell Park
> the Horse Gate Box Woodland Avifauna will be gone within a couple of
> years. There will be Noisy Miners and nothing else.
>
> Noting that Noisy Miners have been listed as a national threatening
> process, my open questions are these:
>
> 1. Should COG be prioritising Common Mynas or Noisy Miners for
> suppression?
>
> 2. Is it time for ACT Parks to prioritise prime bird habitats to be
> protected from Noisy Miners and to start doing some focussed culling?
>
> regards
>
> Con
>
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