I am having a miserable spring on the bird front here in Gunnedah,
especially when i compare it with what it used to be like.
My first spring here was seven years ago. Around my cottage I was
thrilled to find lots of yellow-rumped thornbills, superb wrens, various
woodswallows, white-backed swallows, inland and white-throated warblers,
striped honeyeaters, zebra finches and the occasional red-capped wren.
This year, out of all those I have one lone wren manfully trying to defend
her nest from invading miners (she must have found a male somewhere, but he
isn't resident) and a pair of thornbills. They reared one young, but I
don't think it survived leaving the nest. Even the willie wagtails and
white plumed honeyeaters have dropped in numbers.
Instead there are yellow-throated and noisy miners, spiny cheeked
honeyeaters, and butcher birds. What hope have little birds got, when
their sheltered habitat is being continually removed? Luckily there are
still forests on the rough hills.
Cheers
Annabel Hoskins
Gunnedah Global Information Centre
(Gunnedah's Public Library)
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