On major mynah and miner matters

[Nathanael Coyne <>]

I thought Noisy Miners were restricted to the edge of woodland habitats and didn't generally go deeper than a hundred metres ... so is that information inaccurate or is the quality of the woodland there that poor that it's essentially mostly "edge" anyway?

Nathanael Coyne (Boehm)

www.purecaffeine.com

Canberra, Australia
0431 698 580

On 20 October 2015 at 09:12, 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

*******************************************************************************************************
This is the email announcement and discussion list of the Canberra Ornithologists Group.
Emails posted to the list that exceed 200 kB in size, including attachments, will be rejected.
All emails distributed via the list are archived at http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds. It is a condition of list membership that you agree to your contributions being archived.
When subscribing or unsubscribing, please insert the word 'Subscribe' or 'Unsubscribe', as applicable, in the email's subject line.
List-Post: <>
List-Help: <>
List-Unsubscribe: <>
List-Subscribe: <>
List manager: David McDonald, email <>