Dear All,
Birds Australia has been working with Rob Morrison in putting together a TV
news story
on the Birds On Golf Courses Project.
I have attached Rob's email to me about the story which, unfortunately, I did
not read
until today. So the news story was aired in South Australia last night.
However, he made
some observations of birds on Mt Osmond Golf Course which some of you may find
interesting ...
Stephen
All being well, my TV story will air tonight. We shot it at Mt Osmond golf
Course near Adelaide, where Bryan Cooper has spent a great deal of effort
in making the course 'bird friendly.' On the beautiful sunny day on which
we shot it, we took many pics of Rosellas entering hollow logs, pardalotes
nesting in hollow boughs, Galahs at work on one and lorikeets nesting in
artificial boxes installed for that purpose. Also other birds (crested
pigeons, magpies, miners etc) co-existing with golfers and eating insects
I sent a helicopter up and got good 'bird's-eye views' of the course,
showing how a well-maintained course provides good bird habitat. On the
ground, I showed Bryan's preservation of native grasses, plantings of
shrubs, preservation of old dead trees etc.
I used David Paton for the grabs, and managed to work two of them in,
captioning him as from 'Birds Australia' and I talked of Birds Australia's
forthcoming national project in the script.
I have never come across such copious nesting activity all at once; every
tree had several birds active in its various hollows, and it occurred to
me that one of the benefits of golf courses like this (and perhaps worth
emphasising) is that the resident birds are well used to people, and go
about their business unafraid of them.
When you watch these hollow-nesters in National Parks (or even on my own
property where they nest each year in boxes) they seem much more
apprehensive of human activity. On the golf course, we could stand directly
beneath the birds and film them in great detail without upsetting them at
all. This has to be a decided plus for golf courses that nobody seems to
publicise.
Feel free to post this message on to anybody who might be interested.
Thanks for your help.
Rob
Dr Rob Morrison
Environmental Studies
Flinders University of South Australia
Phone (08)8339 3790
Fax (08)8339 6272
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