Of course introduction and migration of non native animals has had some bad impacts on native flora and fauna but the impacts of human migration is much worse. An d we are supposed to be responsible thinking beings. What a joke !!
Month: February 2023
The Common Myna
Some years ago I wrote this about the Common Myna:
The Common Myna
According to the Common
Myna
Life in Oz could not be
finer
Ample ecologic niches
Full of gastronomic
riches.
To refugees from lands
afar
The Aussie door is left
ajar
From the overcrowded
Ganges delta
Come Common Mynas seeking
shelter.
Mind you, stress can be
intense
When translocating
continents
To achieve an immigration
mission
You can’t dismiss the
competition.
Kites, magpies and
Currawong
All do their best to do
them wrong
Goannas, snakes and many
others
And don’t forget those
Kookaburras.
They steal their nests,
eat their young
When settling in has just
begun
And believe you me I do
not jest
When I say specific
prejudice.
Mind you one can
understand
These natives think it is
their land
Millenia of evolution
Occupation and collusion.
But it’s hard to
comprehend the hate
From the pale-skinned
primate
Also recent immigrants
From over crowded
continents.
These humans flaunt their
shameless skill
For destroying habitats at
will
Converting ancient forest
tall
Into ugly urban sprawl.
They eliminate all
competition
With poison, plough and
land division
And into fragile habitats
Bring rabbits, foxes,
toads and cats.
And thus it seems to be to
me
Such unashamed hypocrisy
Amidst destruction caused
by them
The Common Myna to
condemn.
Geoff Ryan
2010
starings
Another poem, from UK
We’re starlings, the misses, meself and the boys,
We don’t go round hopin‘, we walks.
We don’t go in for this singing all day,
And twittering about, we just squawks.
We don’t go in for these fashionable clothes,
Like old Missel Thrush, and his spots,
Me breast isn’t red, there’s no crest on me head,
We’ve got sort of, hardwearing…dots.
We starlings, the misses, meself and the boys,
We’ll eat anything that’s about,
Well anything but that old half coconut,
I can’t hold it still. I falls out.
What we’d rather do, is wait here for you,
To put out some bread for the tits,
And then when we’re certain, you’re there by the curtain,
We flocks down and tears it to bits.
But we starlings, the misses, meself and the boys,
We reckon that we’re being got at,
You think for two minutes, them finches and linnets,
You never sees THEM being shot at.
So the next time you comes out to sprinkle the crumbs out,
And there’s starlings there, making a noise,
Don’t you be so quick to heave half a brick,
It’s the misses, meself and the boys!
Poem by Pam Ayres
We don’t go round hopin‘, we walks.
We don’t go in for this singing all day,
And twittering about, we just squawks.
We don’t go in for these fashionable clothes,
Like old Missel Thrush, and his spots,
Me breast isn’t red, there’s no crest on me head,
We’ve got sort of, hardwearing…dots.
We starlings, the misses, meself and the boys,
We’ll eat anything that’s about,
Well anything but that old half coconut,
I can’t hold it still. I falls out.
What we’d rather do, is wait here for you,
To put out some bread for the tits,
And then when we’re certain, you’re there by the curtain,
We flocks down and tears it to bits.
But we starlings, the misses, meself and the boys,
We reckon that we’re being got at,
You think for two minutes, them finches and linnets,
You never sees THEM being shot at.
So the next time you comes out to sprinkle the crumbs out,
And there’s starlings there, making a noise,
Don’t you be so quick to heave half a brick,
It’s the misses, meself and the boys!
Poem by Pam Ayres
On 21 Feb 2023, at 3:00 am, birding-aus-request@birding-aus.org wrote:
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Today’s Topics:
1. Re: Starlings (Tony Russell)
2. Re: Starlings (Tony Russell)
3. (no subject) (Robin and Rupert Irwin)
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Message: 1
From: Tony Russell <pratincole08@gmail.com>
To: jpolak@jpolak.org
Cc: Birding-Aus <birding-aus@birding-aus.org>
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Starlings
Message-ID:
<CAO5DGRtUE9Y+_s-DwzX2b1BsD6X_kojMZX9poD+6ys2w4e4XtA@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”utf-8″
Geoff do you have a similar thing for Indian Miners. They have a much
nicer song.?
On Sun, 19 Feb 2023, 23:41 Jason Polak, <jpolak@jpolak.org> wrote:
I also liked the poem a lot. I read it aloud and it was very nice. I don’t
like that there are invasive species but we are the most invasive of all of
them by far, and the cause of most other invasions also.
Jason
On 2023-02-18 8:54 p.m., MADELON LANE wrote:Love the poem, increasingly I see our poor planet on a trajectory to
something rather like hell for it?s current inhabitants and am grateful for
the company of all species, who apart from humans, are unknowingly on this
journey into the future together.
On Sun, 19 Feb 2023 at 6:46 am, Geoff Ryan <geoffryanster@gmail.com<mailto:geoffryanster@gmail.com>> wrote:
My contribution to the Starling discussion:
*THE COMMON STARLING*
The common starling’s not the darling
Of humans in this land
But why decried and vilified
I do not understand.
Is it their success and life prowess
Producing swirling flocks
Most common bird seen or heard
‘Round Eastern farming blocks.
A pleasant call, not harsh at all
Iridescent breeding plume
Their beauty’s there for all to share
Not admired, I presume.
They fill a niche increasing rich
Spawned by crops and farms
But also feast on bugs and beast
Protecting crops from harm.
Do they enjoy or just destroy
A farmers right to earn
Reducing grain and thus the gain
To a point of no return?
Perhaps the hatred’s more predated
Bequeathed by English vile
Colonial error a foreign terror
Enough to churn our bile.
We in the East must try at least
To accept their subtle charm
Whereas the West must do its best
To keep starlings off the farm.
/Geoff Ryan/
2016
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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2023 10:57:11 +1030
From: Tony Russell <pratincole08@gmail.com>
To: jpolak@jpolak.org
Cc: Birding-Aus <birding-aus@birding-aus.org>
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Starlings
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Mynahs
On Mon, 20 Feb 2023, 08:45 Tony Russell, <pratincole08@gmail.com> wrote:Geoff do you have a similar thing for Indian Miners. They have a much
nicer song.?
On Sun, 19 Feb 2023, 23:41 Jason Polak, <jpolak@jpolak.org> wrote:I also liked the poem a lot. I read it aloud and it was very nice. I
don’t like that there are invasive species but we are the most invasive of
all of them by far, and the cause of most other invasions also.
Jason
On 2023-02-18 8:54 p.m., MADELON LANE wrote:Love the poem, increasingly I see our poor planet on a trajectory to
something rather like hell for it?s current inhabitants and am grateful for
the company of all species, who apart from humans, are unknowingly on this
journey into the future together.
On Sun, 19 Feb 2023 at 6:46 am, Geoff Ryan <geoffryanster@gmail.com<mailto:geoffryanster@gmail.com>> wrote:
My contribution to the Starling discussion:
*THE COMMON STARLING*
The common starling’s not the darling
Of humans in this land
But why decried and vilified
I do not understand.
Is it their success and life prowess
Producing swirling flocks
Most common bird seen or heard
‘Round Eastern farming blocks.
A pleasant call, not harsh at all
Iridescent breeding plume
Their beauty’s there for all to share
Not admired, I presume.
They fill a niche increasing rich
Spawned by crops and farms
But also feast on bugs and beast
Protecting crops from harm.
Do they enjoy or just destroy
A farmers right to earn
Reducing grain and thus the gain
To a point of no return?
Perhaps the hatred’s more predated
Bequeathed by English vile
Colonial error a foreign terror
Enough to churn our bile.
We in the East must try at least
To accept their subtle charm
Whereas the West must do its best
To keep starlings off the farm.
/Geoff Ryan/
2016
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Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2023 08:02:35 +1100
From: Robin and Rupert Irwin <rrdjm140@gmail.com>
To: Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org
Subject: [Birding-Aus] (no subject)
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I do so agree with all that has been said re starlings. Humans have introduced these birds/animals. They had no day in the matter.
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0447 077725
Araucaria Ecotours
(educational wildlife tours) https://www.learnaboutwildlife.com
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(no subject)
I do so agree with all that has been said re starlings. Humans have introduced these birds/animals. They had no day in the matter.
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Starlings
My contribution to the Starling discussion:
THE COMMON STARLING
The common
starling's not the darling
Of humans in this
land
But why decried
and vilified
I do not
understand.
Is it their
success and life prowess
Producing swirling
flocks
Most common bird
seen or heard
'Round Eastern
farming blocks.
A pleasant call,
not harsh at all
Iridescent
breeding plume
Their beauty's
there for all to share
Not admired, I
presume.
They fill a niche
increasing rich
Spawned by crops
and farms
But also feast on
bugs and beast
Protecting crops
from harm.
Do they enjoy or
just destroy
A farmers right to
earn
Reducing grain and
thus the gain
To a point of no
return?
Perhaps the
hatred's more predated
Bequeathed by
English vile
Colonial error a
foreign terror
Enough to churn
our bile.
We in the East
must try at least
To accept their
subtle charm
Whereas the West
must do its best
To keep starlings
off the farm.
Geoff Ryan
2016
FW: Starlings as shorebirds
From: Wim Vader <wjm.vader@gmail.com>
Sent: tirsdag 14. februar 2023 11:43
To: Willem Jan Marinus Vader <wim.vader@uit.no>
Cc: Riet Keuchenius <mmkeuchenius@gmail.com>; Hayo H.W. Velthuis <hhwv@xs4all.nl>
Subject: Starlings as shorebirds
Starlings as shorebirds (In defense of starlings)
When I mention in my writings, that we here in the Tromsø area have put up nest boxes especially for Starlings, I always get surprised and/or irritated reactions: "Do you really want to help these pestilential birds? You can get ours". I am of course fully aware of the fact that the European Starling Sturnus vulgaris in many parts of the world is an unwelcome newcomer, often outcompeting local birds for nesting holes, but here the situation is different: Starlings belong here and the numbers are dangerously decreasing, due to changes in agricultural practices and lack of nesting opportunities in modern houses and farms. And Starlings are welcome harbingers of soon coming spring in N. Norway, where they are among the earlier migrants.
It is very much a pity that Starlings have such a bad reputation, as it prevents people from looking closer at these most intelligent opportunists. They also have a definite devil-may-care personality; the great naturalist Jac. P. Thijsse in the Netherlands caught this perfectly in his ex libris, which showed a starling singing in the rain, with as text ‘Onbekommerd’ (i.e. No worries).
Starlings are opportunists, and here I want to give a few examples that they even may act as shore birds now and then; in fact, they forage a lot in the intertidal here in northern Norway, and the few that try to winter, are invariably on the outermost islands.
I grew up in the Netherlands and as a student took part in yearly summercamps on ‘Shorebirds and Bottom fauna’, where we studied the feeding habits of the many shorebirds in the Wadden Sea. I was the bottomfauna man and i.a. got to know the manifold tracks made by the invertebrates living in the mud. One very characteristic somewhat star-shaped track, usually high up in the intertidal, we learned to know as the track of the large polychaete Nereis diversicolor. And I discovered that the local Starlings also had learned to recognize this track: they now and then flew from one track to another and often extracted the worms.
In Norway I have often watched Starlings foraging in the stony intertidal, but usually it was not possible to pinpoint the prey. I suspect they often took my beloved amphipods, often turning around stones as deftly as the Turnstones. One day, when I collected along the Sognefjord, the local starlings were so closely bound to intertidal foraging, that they collected and loafed on overhead wires for the few hours that the tides prevented them from foraging on the shore!
I have found also the southerly Spotless Starling foraging in the intertidal, on a sandy shore near Santander in northern Spain. I am unsure about the prey there, but I suspect they took beachhoppers.
As I said, Starlings are opportunists and it was therefore hardly a surprise when I found them scrounging on the shrimp boats in the harbour of Den Helder. They flew off and on and probably fed the shrimps to their begging young, still in the nest boxes. In Western Norway, there is seasonally in the fjords an active ‘sardine’ fishery, actually on Sprat Clupea sprattus. The fish are kept for a while in large standing nets after catching, where there is some mortality. The local starlings flew like small helicopters over the nets and picked up the floating dead sprats. I have seen similar activity in Holland, where some ever resourceful Starlings even used a small floating piece of wood as basis.
Starlings are highly intelligent and resourceful birds (One ‘played hummingbird’ to get at the peanut butter in Riet’s garden recently!), and always well worth watching. They definitely are not ‘only evil’, as many in the US and Australia seem to think.
Wim Vader, Tromsø, N. Norway
(Advertisement?) Sundarbans (Bangladesh) Masked Finfoot trip Apr 2023
Hi Everyone,
I am organizing a group to book in for a boat tour in the Sundarbans to search for Masked Finfoot, to take place between the 12th and 16th of April 2023.
Masked Finfoot is critically endangered – the Sundarbans mangrove forest in Bangladesh is now the only accessible area where there is a good chance of finding it.
The boat tour will be with Pugmark Tours and Travels – two groups of birders did their Masked Finfoot boat tour in December and one (so far) in January – all were successful.
The tour is on a live-aboard houseboat, using a smaller boat to search side-creeks for the Finfoot.
The boat tour is expensive to do solo but the larger the group, the more affordable it becomes.
I might book anything from a 3 Day/3 Night tour to a 5 Day/4 Night tour depending on how many people I can get (and what their budget constraints are).
A longer trip is preferable since it often takes several days (at least) of searching to find a Finfoot.
Also there is 7-8 hours of travel time on the houseboat (to and from the starting point at Khulna) to get to the right areas in the Sundarbans.
Please let me know if you are interested.
Cheers,
Michael
0434582005