Darebin Creek bird survey - Oct 2013

Since my interest in birds has evolved, I thought it would be interesting and educational to help out at a bird survey that was being conducted along the Darebin creek. While everyone else donned binoculars, I walked with my camera. This actually proved very beneficial to the survey as my long zoom was nearly always better than the range of the binoculars and the captured image could be ID'd  long after the bird had flown off.

We split up into small groups to observe different habitats along the river. Unfortunately our group managed to get the area full of introduced Common Mynahs which probably scared most of the indigenous birds away.

The Common Mynah was introduced to Australia in the 1880's to control pests and has since been declared by the World Conservation Union to be among the world's 100 most invasive species.
An action group has formed in the area trying to figure out how to stop the spread of  them in the park. And there has been talk of installing traps to catch them and then gassing them in euthanasia boxes.

Looks like this Mynah had taken over one of the nesting boxes meant for the native birds.

Common Mynah, Acridotheres tristis

Australian Raven, Corvus coronoides

Brown Thornbill, Acanthiza pusilla

Grey Currawong, Strepera versicolor

Grey Currawong, Strepera versicolor

Magpie Lark, Grallina cyanoleuca

Spotted Turtle-dove, Streptopelia Chinensis

Pacific black duck, Anas superciliosa

Just as we were finishing up for the morning we spotted something very unexpected coming towards us.

By the way it came up to us and sniffed around our legs, we agreed it was not wild but a pet that had either escaped or been dumped along the river. We then faced a dilemma - leave it or attempt to catch it. If we left it it would either die or start killing a lot of the native wildlife. So we ran back to the car for a box and some hay band and one of the ladies (who luckily turned out to be a vet) grabbed it. No sooner had we contained it and returned to the other groups did we find out that another one had been spotted nearby. It wasn't long before this one wandered up to us to see what all the fuss was about. 

The bird survey wrap-up.

The data collected by all the groups showed that 48 different bird species were present in the small area we had all walked. And 2 stinky male ferrets had been caught and taken away by our vet friend!