Beginning Birding

["John McAllister" <>]

Hi Peter and others

 

Thanks for your great posting.  We have the same problem here in South Africa with people's desires to emulate a sort of second rate northern hemisphere home and have plenty of House Sparrows, Common Starlings, Chaffinches (not too successful though and restricted to Cape Town), Common Mynas and Indian House Crows to name but a few.

 

We have another problem too though - Australian trees!  Unlike the Aussies South Africans have a sick (for us at least) love affair with eucalypts, Australian acacias (our are obviously not good enough) and casuarinas which are used for all sorts of things from massive plantations in our grasslands to windbreaks and avenues lining farm driveways.  This has a profound effect on our bird life.  Here where I live in relatively pristine grasslands an unpublished study has shown that we have around 190 species of birds per square kilometre.  In the quite nearby agricultural areas and tree plantations this figure drops to around 110 and 70 respectively.  Studies in Kenya have shown a similar difference between indigenous forests and encroaching eucalypt plantations.  So don't despair - someone loves Australian trees - just not Australians it seems :-(

 

Cheers

 

John McAllister
Beautiful Just Birding
Wakkerstroom

South Africa