Hi all,
Like many people I start a Year List on 1st January each year. Now, because I live in Carlton North which is on the edge of the Melbourne CBD, my first birds for the year are usually introduced birds; Rock Dove, House Sparrow etc. Boring. For this reason I usually try for another common bird around here, Rainbow Lorikeet, to start my list and this year I was lucky because 2 flew over as I opened the front door.
With the year safely underway with a native bird I then started on the rest. Common Myna? Yes. Starling? Yes. Turtle-Dove? Yes. House Sparrow? Yes. Rock Dove? Rock Dove? NO!!! For me this was a surprise because I live in the middle of a strip of cafés and a park. There are always Rock Doves around. They feed on pizza crumbs, picnic bits, dropped cake and anything else they can find. They are ubiquitous. They are “trash” birds. Common as muck. They are always here, but not on the morning of 1st Jan.
Over the last 19 days I have kept watch for them as I drive and walk around. Walking to BirdLife in Carlton on Thursday I saw a total of 5 in Lygon Street, 3 in Swanston Street and none in Lincoln Square, a favourite lunch spot for local office workers. Driving to WTP on Friday there were none on the footpath in the Kensington shopping strip. A few loitered on the nature strips down the Old Geelong Rd through Footscray and Brooklyn.
Today, a gorgeous 26º with blue skies, and there are none outside my house. The cafés are full, the park is full but no Rock Doves.Yesterday morning I went to the supermarket and where there are usually 20 there were 4; yesterday afternoon a walk around Princes Park football ground gave me 8; a local nature strip had 4; my local park had 2.
Out of interest I went for a drive this morning. There was a group of 9 in the Carlton Gardens; there were none outside the library in Swanston Street; there were none on the RMIT campus; there were none in Flagstaff Gardens; there were none on any city footpath and, more worryingly, there were none that I could see at the Queen Vic Market. At Royal Park Wetland I found 2. Outside Melbourne Zoo there were none. I guess they might all be down at StKilda enjoying summer at the beach, eating fish and chips with the Silver gulls; or over at Rod Laver Arena watching the tennis, but there are not many in their normal haunts around here.
My search of Melbourne has definitely not been extensive or exhaustive and maybe numbers drop off every summer, I don’t know, but in 15 years of living here I don’t ever remember walking out the front door and seeing none. Is it possible that they really do “migrate” to the beachside suburbs in summer? Has anyone else noticed a change in their local Rock Dove population or is it just in my area?
cheers
Jenny http://jenniferspryausbirding.blogspot.com.au/ ===============================
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Hi Jenny and Carl,
Maybe its the result of that virus that was around in ?autumn/winter last year?
We had a BirdLife Melbourne Photography group outing to Mill Park Lakes Saturday morning and saw them there, and I think I’ve seen them at my local shopping centre too.
Sonja
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When I was watching the Test Cricket recently, the mandatory discussion of Bill Lawrie’s racing pigeons came up. Bill explained that pigeon racing has only just resumed after a lengthy break due to a virulent pigeon disease. A quick Google search confirmed that a virus called avian paramyxovirus had affected domestic pigeons, both racing and fancy pigeons, from late 2011.
Perhaps the virus has taken a toll of feral pigeons.
Cheers
David
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Plenty still hanging around on the old hangars by the old entrance to the Western Treatment Plant. But in general not very common around here either
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Jenny,
Rock Dove have virtually disappeared from my local area, Gorokan, NSW Central Coast despite plenty of food, courtesy of a nearby bakers.
Carl Clifford
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