On Tue, Sep 06, 2005 at 09:23:25AM +1000, Jack Shapiro wrote:
> The letter to the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, attached below
> is of interest to ?Birding Aus?-ers.
> ....
> When we moved into our Balmain cottage in 1976 there were blue wrens,
> white plumed honeyeaters, silvereyes, little wattle birds, bulbuls, and
> cuckoo-shrikes. Gradually over the years, each species has slowly
> disappeared. Long gone are days when we would be startled by a blue
> wren colliding with its own reflection in our glass doors.
I live near Balmain and I'm often out early running in suburbs around
Balmain. Flocks of Silvereyes and RW Bulbuls are conspicuous. Superb
Fairy-wrens and BF Cuckoo-shrikes are less conspicuous but regularly
seen. I don't think I've seen Little Wattlebird near Balmain - perhaps
the letter writer meant Red Wattlebirds which are very conspicuous.
They were originally only a winter visitor to Sydney. As they are now
breed in inner Sydney and are common through the year, I'd be surprised
if Red Wattlebird numbers hadn't increased over the last 30 years.
I don't see/hear many White-plumed Honeyeaters around Balmain but they
were absent from this area 50 years ago, so I'd be doubtful they were
declining. The letter writer might mean New Holland HE which can be
easily seen/heard around the area.
Incidentally, I'd bet Superb Fairy-wrens density in some parts of inner
Sydney exceeds pre-European levels. Cats are often mentioned as a
fairy-wren predator but high cat and fairy-wren density seem to co-occur.
Andrew
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