Hi All,
I know this was the subject of a previous thread but I was on digest mail
delivery at the time and could not add my two penneth-worth. Now back on
individual delivery and waited a while but no more messages on the thread so I
resurrected it.
In my earlier, pre-birding, days I used do a reasonable amount of off-shore
fishing from small boats. One technique we used was to berley with cut up
pilchards and small pieces of tuna etc. We were often plagued by "Mutton Birds"
which, when we thought we knew something about birds and wanted to show off, we
used to call Shearwaters. For a time we were not even aware that there are
different species of Shearwaters! How things have changed.
Anyhow, the birds would cluster around the back of the boat, stealing the
berley before it had time to sink and also chasing our baits with a very real
risk of being hooked. Our solution was to set up a slow drip of tuna oil to
create a slick behind the boat. We observed that most of the birds would not
alight on the water in the slick and any that did would swim out of it and sit
on the water preening themselves vigorously. It was our belief that the oil,
even though in a very small quantity, was enough to upset the birds
"floatability".
Perhaps it is the "oiliness" of the shark liver oil and not the shark odour
that keeps the birds away.
Roger Giller
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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