Hi all,
Recent postings on Starlings reminds me of generations of worthy
Glaswegian councillors who spent entire political careers planing and
implementing increasingly futile campaigns to remove the little
darlings and their unfortunate by product from the ledges and window
sills of Glasgow's fine heritage of Victorian buildings. Its been a few
years since I used to peer out of my office window in the depths of a
gloomy winters evening trying to locate the source of the clamour as
thousands of the little blighters returned to the city centre
presumably to take advantage of what little heat could be obtained
from the myriad of street lights and neon signs.
Here in Brisbane I have been coming across the odd pair of them,
always it seems in the vicinity of overhead traffic lights. Would
this be a classic example of Darwinian principals in that they are
successfully exploiting an area / nesting site ignored by the natives
or is it just possible that the birds in question are descendants of
Glaswegian immigrants, programmed to head for any source of heat to
combat miserable winters nights
.
Seriously, the starlings noted are almost always
seen around traffic lights or street lighting at traffic junctions.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the subject.
Not a major worry or so I would have believed until I made a long
overdue trip to Fisherman's Island in Brisbane recently.
I had stopped to look at a large pond with a huge number of Black
Winged Stilts and to try and identify some terns sharing the shallow
pond. All clean cut and healthy looking with pelicans and black ducks
overhead and even the delight of a pair of mistletoe bird birds down at
near eye,level instead of being up in the gods. All was well with the
world but as I stood there a familiar
but almost forgotten chatter came from the sewerage installation on
the other side of the road. Shades of Hitchcock, there were hundreds of the
scabby little
disasters milling around the tanks and at one time over six hundred
of them settled on the overhead lines.
Would there be any point in contacting Glasgow town council for
advice( I'm sure they are still in the business of coming up with
sure fire remedial solutions ) or would this be a job for Pauline.
Ron Hughes
Brisbane +1000
Queensland, Australia
|
