A special visitor
Grey Shrike-Thrush
On Saturday I was sitting in my comfortable reading chair in my office. I was enjoying a coffee and reading a magazine that had arrived the day before. A sudden flurry of wings at the nearby window caught my attention. (My attention is very easily distracted by birds.)
A Grey Shrike-thrush had landed on the on the window sill barely a metre from where I sat. It pecked at something on the glass – probably an insect caught against the window – took a quick glance in my direction, and flew off to a nearby tree to eat his morning snack.
It is close encounters with our bird life like that which makes this such a wonderful hobby.
Grey Shrike-Thrush
The problem with cats
Feral and domestic cats are responsible for the decline of many of our native bird, mammal and reptile species in Australia. Irresponsible cat owners who let their animals roam freely are to blame. You can’t blame the cats; they are natural hunters and will seek any source of food.
Local council restricts cat numbers
In the light of my first paragraph it is then pleasing to hear that Mitcham Council in suburban Adelaide last night passed a bylaw restricting the numbers of cats in its area.
In addition to the two-cat restriction, Mitcham cat owners will be required to register and microchip the animals. Cat owners are permitted to own more than two cats if they can convince the council they are not impacting negatively on the community and they are properly cared for.
You can read the whole article here: Adelaide Advertiser.
They didn’t go far enough in my opinion. They should have also provided for compulsory desexing of all cats registered.
Two milestones for this birding blog
This blog has reached a special milestone.
Last night I approved the 3000th comment from my readers.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of this blog. You have made it what it is – a vibrant community of birders and bird lovers. In the last few months when I have been very busy writing my novel, readers’ questions have appeared here and other readers have jumped in ahead of me and answered the query or question. This interaction between readers makes writing this blog so worthwhile.
Many readers have also said nice – and sometimes flattering – things about the photos and the articles. Thank you all for your generous praise. I’m truly grateful.
I believe that this blog is fulfilling something of a great need in educating people about Australian birds. I’ve lost count of the number of readers who have commented that, in searching for information about Australian birds, this was the only site where they found answers. That pleases the teacher in me – I was a teacher for 35 years before retiring in 2004. I am now a full time writer.
Musk Lorikeet
Another important milestone
In November this blog also achieved another important milestone. For the first time it exceeded 15,000 different readers for the month. That makes it all worthwhile, and very satisfying that it is reaching such a wide audience.
Thank you to all of my loyal readers and the many people who have contributed comments and asked questions.
Red Browed Finch
Guest speaker
Today I was the guest speaker at the Mallee Aged Care, a group which meets in the local soccer club rooms every fortnight. The organiser invited me – and my wife – for lunch and after that I gave a one hour presentation, talking about Australian birds. I illustrated my talk with photos of our lovely birds. Most of the photos have been shown here on my blog over recent years.
While many in the group were hard of hearing, all said they could hear me clearly – it must be the remnants of my teacher voice at work.
All said they enjoyed the talk very much and learned so much about our birds. One lady even started taking notes on a paper napkin!
I’ve done similar talks to various group before, and the requests are becoming more frequent as word gets out. It’s something I enjoy and I not only love sharing about Australian birds, as a former teacher I love imparting knowledge about them with any who will listen. Friends and family know this and often ring or ask about something they’ve seen birds doing.
An offer too good to refuse:
I am prepared to go anywhere to talk about Australian birds. If it’s interstate just provide the air fare and I’ll be there. What the heck – I’ll even fly overseas to talk about Australian birds.
Emu, Monarto Zoo, South Australia
Nest boxes for wildlife: a practical guide
On the weekend I bought another book to add to my already vast collection. (Can one ever have too many books?) This one is a very practical book; it says so on the cover!
- Nest boxes for wildlife: a practical guide by Alan and Stacey Franks (2006, Bloomings Books, Melbourne)
We already have quite a few species of wildlife nesting in hollows on our property. At times however, the competition seems to be intense. This has been worsened in a the last few years by the large numbers of the introduced European Starling taking over many of the suitable hollows. They have forced some of our native species to look elsewhere. Over the next few years I intend giving some of our native birds and animals a helping hand by providing some nesting boxes. We have enough suitable trees for several dozen such nest boxes.
This new book of mine has plans included for some of the more commonly constructed nesting boxes. These plans include many different birds as well as boxes suitable for possums, gliders and bats. Of course I could have gone ahead and bought some boxes, but I enjoy making things with timber so I’ll have a go at them myself. It’s a bit late to be putting up these boxes this year because the breeding season is in full swing. I plan to have some ready for next spring.
I’ll keep you posted.
Happy birding.
Special Note: this book deals only with Australian fauna. For suitable nesting boxes for your country, please look for publications dealing with you local fauna.