Thanks very much Mark, it is great to hear this! The news on Black
Currawongs is sad, and I am glad to hear that the feed tray move was made
for the welfare of the birds. I find it interesting to hear that the tray
has been set up elsewhere, as I was never directed to it by the permanent
residents, and neither was a group of birders who had flown in for the day
specifically to see the parrots, and were having little luck. I further saw
no evidence of a temporary hide - perhaps it hadn't been set up by the time
I was down there.
It is especially good to see that action is being taken on the starlings,
as it is not a nice thought that the breeding of the parrots could be
compromised by an invasive pest.
Best regards,
Ashwin Rudder
On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 8:00 AM, David Stowe <>wrote:
> Hi Ashwin,
> Thanks very much for this info!
> As someone hoping to get down there this summer I'd love to know more
> about the situation if anyone can shed more light?
>
> Cheers
> David Stowe
> On 08/12/2011, at 11:53 PM, Ashwin Rudder wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I thought it might interest a lot of you, especially those planning on
> > going after the Orange-bellied Parrots at Melaleuca this summer, that the
> > feeding tray infront of the hide has been removed. The stumps remain, but
> > the wooden platform has been broken up, and now resides under the floor
> of
> > the hide, along with the whiteboard that has the band combinations for
> the
> > individual birds. Why this has happened I have no idea, and the two
> > permanent residents' response when I asked them was "Who knows?". I can
> > only speculate that the people in charge of the recovery program have
> > decided that the impact on the birds of people in the hide was greater
> than
> > the benefits of having birders voluntarily reporting the bands that they
> > saw.
> >
> > What worries me is more that the birds now no longer have a very reliable
> > food source. I hope the birds have not been abandoned as a lost cause. I
> > was further worried to see three Starlings near one of the nest boxes.
> The
> > parrots have quite enough to worry about elsewhere in their range, surely
> > it would not be hard to eradicate a few starlings now, rather than let
> them
> > proliferate and become a major problem, out-competing the parrots for the
> > nest boxes.
> >
> > For those still heading down, the birds are still there. They are nesting
> > in, or inspecting a number of nest-boxes that are prominent, and in easy
> > view. Early-ish morning, I found to be the best time, and the easiest way
> > to see them is to hear them flying overhead, and watch for where they
> land,
> > then follow. But I would definitely consider ensuring you go down for
> more
> > than just a single day. Further, there are other birds to be seen, and I
> > had excellent views of Striated Fieldwren, Beautiful Firetail, Southern
> Emu
> > Wren, and Olive Whistler.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Ashwin Rudder
> > ===============================
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> > send the message:
> > unsubscribe
> > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> > to:
> >
> > http://birding-aus.org
> > ===============================
>
>
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
