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Hi all,
Yesterday Ken Shingleton and I disturbed a Lewin's
Rail at Boyter's Lane, Jerseyville which called as we closed the car
doors. It was in roadside weeds that Ken told me had been previously
slashed by the Council when the rails were nesting there. It called from
beneath a clump of blackberries growing in long grass. I cast my mind back
to other Lewin's Rail records that I had made. The first bird that I ever
saw flew into my mist net at Tumbi Umbi, in the early 1970's, from a blackberry
clump. In the early 1980's Lewin's Rails were often detected in
blackberries at Dharug National Park. More recently Russell Jago, Keith
Kendall and I recorded a number of calling birds at Forster, in blackberry
patches. Blackberries are noxious weeds and should be controlled but, just
like Lantana, they do provide cover for a multitude of birds, mammals, reptiles
and amphibians. Any weed control programme needs to be combined with
regeneration (natural or planted) of local native species that would have
provided suitable habitat before the weeds were introduced. I support the
slowly, slowly, careful approach.
Regards
Greg
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