Hi Mike
Sorry - but our Barbary Doves are, I believe, NOT self-sustaining. Evidence
below.
I didn't intend to go public on this topic after replying privately to Tania,
but now I must respond to your report of our phone call relating to the City of
Bayside, Melbourne.
Firstly re the Marriage Road area. I had a report from a non-birder who,
seeing the birds at Greent Point, said she had seen 6 or 7 around or near
Marriage Road, Brighton, that summer (2004/05) including "a baby". Another
person later mentioned one in the same general area in 2005 and a birder saw
one in his garden not far away in July 2007. No other birders, including me,
have reported them there before or since.
Turning to the Green Point/Brighton Dunes/nearby streets at the end of South
Road, there 50 records (mainly from frequent but casual visits). The first was
in January 2003 (a mere 5 years ago) followed by a gap until December 2003.
In summary the records are:
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
9 4 5 1 - 1 1 4 4 3 4 14
including for 2 or more birds:
5 2 4 - - - - 3 2 1 - 4
by year:
All >1bird
2003 6 1
2004 13 7
2005 9 5
2006 9 2
2007 12 5
2008 1 1
Only three records are of 3 birds: in March 04 (when you got your photos), 06
and 07.
The nest 04 nest was removed by us with both parents so confiding that they
were gently held and passed to a vet who kept them for any interested person.
We were trying to remove the nest and eggs intact but unfortunately one egg
broke and the nest was damaged. We have not disturbed birds in any other way
before or since.
A bird was sitting in Feb 05 but the nest was abandoned without any action by
us. We have not located any other nests although birds are often calling in
what looks like suitable, sometimes quite dense, habitat such as Coast
Tea-trees.
So you are wrong about birds 'constantly being removed' or 'trapped' (one
occasion only and not trapped) and about 'nests being destroyed' (only one and
the 'destruction' was an accident).
Since March 04, the records and counts show NO evidence of the (undisturbed)
"population" nesting or breeding successfully.
My hypothesis, given the annual pattern of records and the very confiding
behaviour of many of the birds (approachable to 1 metre), is that there isn't
even a "population", merely birds regularly released by some idiot.
We know one person who was planning to release birds in another area of Bayside
back in 1998 and hope we dissuaded him (one bird was at liberty in that area in
2000).
There are only 3 Bayside records not covered above: one was of a Barbary Dove
courting a Spotted Turtle-dove which fended it away with a wing!
Michael Norris
Bayside Friends of Native Wildlife
|
