There are WB scrubwrens remaining in an area on the southern banks of the
Yarra just downstream of the Bourke road bridge. This area had blackberries
removed a couple of years ago in a pretty intensive spraying program.
I've heard Grey butcherbirds in the area and have seen a goshawk patrolling
under the canopy, but the population persists. There is at least one fox in
the area as well.
Other small birds are also resident there, such as superb fairy wrens, brown
thornbills, eatern yellow robins, as well as the occasional mistletoebird.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Mike
Sent: Tuesday, 30 March 2004 3:28 PM
To: ; Ian May
Cc:
Subject: Re: Grey Butcherbirds around Melbourne.
Importance: High
Prof Mike Tarburton
Dean: School of Science and Technology
Pacific Adventist University
PMB, Boroko
Papua New Guinea
> ----------
> From: Ian May
> Sent: 29 March 2004 22:48
> To:
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: Grey Butch'birds around Melbourne.
>
Dear Melbourne wren-watchers
I have had to change the subject line slightly to try to beat some ISP's
spam filter!!!
I have good evidence (Will be published when I get time) that the
blackberries in Wurundjeri Walk (Blackburn South, in E. Melbourne) not only
saved the remnant population of White-browed Scrub-wrens but was frequently
used by the Superb Fairy-Wrens for nesting. The Fairy-Wrens were
extinguished from this reserve by the council spraying the blackberries
while the Fairy-Wrens were nesting in them.
This is all the more sad when you know that the council had been following
my suggestions up to that point about leaving the blackberries there until
the native replantings had grown sufficiently to replace the blackberries.
They had heeded my warning for four years but tried to speed the process up
for the last segment. This cost us that species, which has not recolonied
yet in the intervening five years.
There are plenty of Grey-butcherbirds around this area, but they appear to
spend more time taking insects from the Tawny Frogmouths as twilight
envelops the patch of bush. I saw the Scrub-wrens escape the White-plumed
Honeyeaters and the Fairy-wrens often escape other potential predators by
fleeing into the blackberries or into the Goodenia thickets.
We all need to be patient sometimes
Cheers
Mike
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