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Drove up to Gippy and back again today so lots of radio listening.....anyhoo Radio National were interviewing the chap who won a Eureka Prize (a Science prize) for this website
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/spaces/ .
Having been surprised at how many honeyeaters and other nectarivores I was able to attract into a suburban garden in the middle of Point Cook with only a few Australian natives I'm conscious of planting to encourage native birds.
Thought the Guidelines for Bird Habitat are quite good.....I may need to cross reference against drought teolerance.
Others may be interested......
Sorry Ash....these are feathered birds....
We have a friendly kookaburra who likes to sit on the neighbour's backyard arbour just around sunrise an laugh his head off...... It's nice to hear him on Mon-Fri, but not so bloody funny on Saturday & Sunday! (our bedroom is at the back of the house).
Unfortunately the resident Magpie & Indian Myna populations seem to prevent most other species from inhabiting the area.
We're really lucky with birds where I am (on the edge of Lane Cove National Park). We get rainbow lorikeets, crimson rosellas, king parrots, cockatoos (bloody things), gang-gang cockatoos (extremely rare), tawny frogmouths, kookaburras, finches, noisy miners, black cockatoos, and the list goes on. We are building only a street away so will still get them with all the natives I'm planting.
Judie
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Sorry Ash....these are feathered birds....
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Being anticipated is so disempowering sometimes!
Ash
I hate those Myna birds.. that is pretty much all we have in our back yard. Sitting on the gutters waking us up in the mornings. We also hav eto go around the house and put up mesh to keep them from nesting between the floors/ on top of electrical box as we had an incident last year where they nested, then left the nest along with millions of bird mites that migrated into our bedroom and all over us. It startd slowly with a few bites from an unknown (those mites are super small) source to heaps of red itchy welts all over us. Yuck, yuck yuck. We saw them nesting there yet we didnt have the heart at the time to take the nest away as they had already laid eggs. Yuck... makes me cringe just remembering it.
I had a look around that site to see if there was anything we could do to deter them but it didnt really say anything. Does anyone have any tips? We will pretty much be completely redoing our gardens/ yard in the next few months.
Sandra
We had those myna birds to start off with at Point Cook, but as the natives got established and the honeyeaters started to come in there little swarms and the when the wattlebirds (I think that's what they are, they make a loud clicking noise) came they started kickin' some myna bird ar*e, use to have some ding dong battles in the backyard. Basically the myna's moved on.
I hate those Myna birds.. that is pretty much all we have in our back yard. Sitting on the gutters waking us up in the mornings. We also hav eto go around the house and put up mesh to keep them from nesting between the floors/ on top of electrical box as we had an incident last year where they nested, then left the nest along with millions of bird mites that migrated into our bedroom and all over us. It startd slowly with a few bites from an unknown (those mites are super small) source to heaps of red itchy welts all over us. Yuck, yuck yuck. We saw them nesting there yet we didnt have the heart at the time to take the nest away as they had already laid eggs. Yuck... makes me cringe just remembering it.
I had a look around that site to see if there was anything we could do to deter them but it didnt really say anything. Does anyone have any tips? We will pretty much be completely redoing our gardens/ yard in the next few months.
Sandra
Myna's are a pest and should be destroyed. They drive off native birds and throw other species babies from nests.
I saw on the Sunday show on Channel 9 about a program to trap and destroy myna's (by poisoning).
Sounds horrible but they are a pest and need to be eradicated. They are a legitimate threat to native birds as they target babies in the nest. I will be looking at a trap when we get to the new house.
Jo
We had those myna birds to start off with at Point Cook, but as the natives got established and the honeyeaters started to come in there little swarms and the when the wattlebirds (I think that's what they are, they make a loud clicking noise) came they started kickin' some myna bird ar*e, use to have some ding dong battles in the backyard. Basically the myna's moved on.
That's good to hear Mike. But they will have moved on to somewhere else attacking the young in the nest. Stupid myna's.
Myna's are a pest and should be destroyed. They drive off native birds and throw other species babies from nests.
I saw on the Sunday show on Channel 9 about a program to trap and destroy myna's (by poisoning). Sounds horrible but they are a pest and need to be eradicated. They are a legitimate threat to native birds as they target babies in the nest. I will be looking at a trap when we get to the new house. Jo
I have trained my 5 year old feline companion to only chase the Mynas in our backyard
She looks but doesn't touch the rosellas/kookaburras/magpies/butcher birds and galahs. And she runs and
hides when we get cockatoos; too big to mess with
I wish I could train her to ignore the skinks too
ETA: I can generally rescue them from her mouth sans tail
Myna's are a pest and should be destroyed. They drive off native birds and throw other species babies from nests.
Sounds horrible but they are a pest and need to be eradicated. They are a legitimate threat to native birds as they target babies in the nest. I will be looking at a trap when we get to the new house.
I agree with the sentiment but most myna eradication programs concentrate on trapping rather than poisoning as poison programs are indiscriminate. Guess the point is if you give the native birds somewhere to hide, feed, and populate they stand a better chance.
Also there is a native Myna - somewhat different coloring and tends to hop rather than stride.
Some tips on Myna's.....
http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/myna/
Myna's are a pest and should be destroyed. They drive off native birds and throw other species babies from nests.
Sounds horrible but they are a pest and need to be eradicated. They are a legitimate threat to native birds as they target babies in the nest. I will be looking at a trap when we get to the new house.
I agree with the sentiment but most myna eradication programs concentrate on trapping rather than poisoning as poison programs are indiscriminate. Guess the point is if you give the native birds somewhere to hide, feed, and populate they stand a better chance.Also there is a native Myna - somewhat different coloring and tends to hop rather than stride.
Some tips on Myna's.....
http://sres-associated.anu.edu.au/myna/The program I'm talking about isn't indiscriminate poisoning. I generally don't like poisoning for the same reason.It involves trapping
then poisoning by gas.
Painless and quick. No risk to other animals.
You have to get permission to do it from the council apparently but most councils encourage it. Even the RSPCA (from memory
) is on board with this because of the damage they do.
I'll be looking into it more further down the track.
I wrote all the details down when i watched the program.
Jo
Drove up to Gippy and back again today so lots of radio listening.....anyhoo Radio National were interviewing the chap who won a Eureka Prize (a Science prize) for this website
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/spaces/ .
Great website . I used it the year before last to help identify some tiny birds we had in our yard. The birds songs/sounds are terrific and the descriptions are excellent.
being right near a national park we get massive flocks of beautiful black cockies cruising around all day. They are like the squadrons of big bombers in the bird world
I never get sick of the noise they make and are so entertaining to watch. Our bird gets all excited when he sees them
I don't know which sort they are though. Baudins or carnaby? one of them needs banksia and the other can eat other things too.
The little cheeky chitty chittys come the same time every year too. wagging their tails around
the odd 28 as well. they are funny.
thanks for the great find too
being right near a national park we get massive flocks of beautiful black cockies cruising around all day. They are like the squadrons of big bombers in the bird world
I never get sick of the noise they make and are so entertaining to watch. Our bird gets all excited when he sees them
I don't know which sort they are though. Baudins or carnaby? one of them needs banksia and the other can eat other things too.
The little cheeky chitty chittys come the same time every year too. wagging their tails around
the odd 28 as well. they are funny.
thanks for the great find too
Just came across a petition to help save the black cockatoos habitat. It's worth signing I think;
http://cockatoosneedyou.org.au/
We had those myna birds to start off with at Point Cook, but as the natives got established and the honeyeaters started to come in there little swarms and the when the wattlebirds (I think that's what they are, they make a loud clicking noise) came they started kickin' some myna bird ar*e, use to have some ding dong battles in the backyard. Basically the myna's moved on.
That's good to hear Mike. But they will have moved on to somewhere else attacking the young in the nest. Stupid myna's.
I hate mynas, the little f$%kers get through gaps near the gate to our chook pen and eat all the chooks food! They sh!t everywhere. HATE THEM
We want to put a giant bird net over our block, or a big glass sound proof bubble, which every is easiest
Since we've moved up here, I haven't had to implement my myna trap and poison program... I haven't seen any.
We've got so many native birds up here it's awesome. There are a pair of massive things (I think they may be Wedge Tail Eagles) and they are unbelievable. Don't see them too often but they cast quite a shadow!
We get some galahs, rosellas, rainbow lorikeets every so often... but mainly cockatoos and big black crow looking things. They're noisey... but dont seem to scare the mynas away...
I have a gang of these boys and girls visit
I have birds in my back yard. I think they're eating the grass seed from my newly laid turf and as a result the weeds are getting a chance to take a hold. Am I imagining such a scenario or is there something I can do about it?