Self-sustaining or otherwise, I've got it ticked.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of michael norris
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 12:14 PM
To: Mike Carter; Tania Ireton; BIRDING-AUS
Subject: RFI Barbary Dove - Bayside Melbourne
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
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