Silvereyes Going Free
I accepted Jenny Whites generous offer to come to Manjimup and help me
with a couple of banding days around my house. I was quite nervous about
another banding event because the kookaburras had arrived earlier with a
new “kid” and numbers had grown to around five birds. Also the brown goshawks were very busy and seen several times
a day chasing birds, especially silvereyes from fruiting trees in my
yard. We would set
nets close to the house to help dodge these “nuisance” birds.
We set a 60 foot net alongside the verandah of the house to maximise our
New Holland Honeyeater “catch” as they were frequenting the row of
flowering grevillea there. Over
the first day we caught 33 Silvereyes, 3 New Holland Honeyeaters, 1
red-winged wren and 1 brown goshawk.
Luckily the goshawk was seen entering the net and retrieved
before doing any damage; I am pleased to say that the silvereye that was
only centimetres away was not injured.
The goshawk was a juvenile and not banded and we decided that we
would quit while the going was good – no dead birds and anyway, who
would want to catch more silvereyes tomorrow.
Thanks Jenny for your help.
On a more general note – around home, the welcome swallows have started
incubating three eggs last week on the verandah. One bird is banded; I guess it is the male I have banded as
no new nest has been built, only the old one relined. He must also have a new female as his partner is not banded.
I have also seen Common Bronzewings, firetails, tree martins and
Willie Wagtails carrying nesting material.
Last
year Western Power changed the wooden cross bars on the power poles
through our district with hollow metal tube cross bars. One of
these poles is in my yard and it was only a few weeks later I noticed
tree martins flying in and out of the tube. This year, they are
now carrying in nesting material so I will be interested to see if they
successfully nest; I am sure it will get very hot in the bars in summer.
I have also noticed tree martins “checking out” two other poles
(with new bars) further down the line in bush area. It would be
interesting if other people see this happening in other areas too!
Lee Fontanini September, 2011
Banders’
Delight – By Lee Fontanini
I live in paradise,
10kms south-west of Manjimup on 7 acres of land; Archies Oven Brook
flows through. Here, my
grandfather arrived 101 years ago and started clearing several hundred
acres of virgin karri bush for farming.
Eighteen months ago, I fenced off each side of the brook and
started a revegetation program using mostly local native plants.
My aim is to help protect/enhance the riparian zone and water
quality, protect an indigenous site, set an example for others to
hopefully follow and provide habitat for wildlife, not only birds but
also Ring-tailed Possum and Bandicoots which are now being sighted
nearby.
To document the
anticipated increase of birds, I have a banding project for the area.
Jenny White from Perth was visiting and there was no better time
to start than January 1st, 2010.
We used 1x30, 2x40 and 1x60 nets as we had no idea how many
birds we would catch. Apart from the list below, we also caught but did not band a
Magpie, Magpie Lark (it had a deformed leg from a possible old injury)
and three Western Rosellas.
With 15 species banded,
we felt very pleased with ourselves; what a great start. I plan to band at this site at least four times a year.
Middlesex Swallows
Dick and Molly Brown
from the Middlesex Field Study Centre had banded Welcome Swallow chicks
in the nest for years. I took up their project and started banding
chicks in 2001 visiting the same sites as the Browns did,
although over the years many no longer exist; dead karri trees in
dams fallen over, buildings demolished etc. But some sites remain,
especially bridges and culverts and it is here that I have banded most
of the 276 chicks. To my
delight, a pair of Welcome Swallows took up a nest site on my verandah
and one of the birds was banded. Having caught the bird, I found that I
had banded it two years ago as a chick in Middlesex. As the Swallow
flies, that is a distance of about 10kms.
Lee Fontanini
Banding
at Fonty’s Pool - April 2010 (Lee Fontanini’s Project)
After the Smithsbrook Banding weekend in April, another two days of
banding continued at Fonty’s Pool, Manjimup with Perry and Alma de
Rebeira, Eleanor Rowley, Jenny White and Tegan Douglas in attendance. It
was a very enjoyable time with 105 birds being banded across 13 species
plus 24 retraps and 10 same day.
Interestingly 13 Grey Fantails were banded which is a high number
for such a small area (and there still at least 2 unbanded birds
remaining).
