Interesting stuff
Night mare animals.
destroy veggie gardens, ruthlessly hunt and eat chicken and duck eggs, eat chook food.
v. aggro males now with the breeding season.
If animals can get at your veggies there’s not much glory in blaming the animals. Defend your patch from varmints!
Man vs Beast
Surely you can summon more testosterone than a turkey?
Not a huge fan of Turkey poo though.
No I didn’t DSD.
Yes nightmare animal. Old mate decided to build a mound up near the house. I’m battling the bastard. If he’s successful this year he’ll be back every year to the same spot. He’s destroying my garden. Been here 9 years and first time they’ve come up near the house. The lower half of my block is creek and rainforest. Piss off back down there ya bastard.
We started off with one.
It’s nest was down in the rainforest as you said.
Now we’ve got nine living around the house.
My Mum feeds them corn. It’s out of control.
If you can’t beat them….eat ‘em.
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/recipes/bush-turkey-stew-chilli-fresh-water-...
wow seeds, you sound like me last year. It was an epic game of cat and mouse here over a few months - I concede I did lose some of the battles but ultimately won the war. Buy yourself a legit turkey trap, stick a mirror in one end, put a bit of fruit in it, and I reckon you'll catch it pretty quick. Then relocate it.
problem solved, until the next one moves in... which has already started here, but I got a good year or so break.
aside from the good habitat/bush/potential nesting site availability, I think it is the food source that draws them in and keeps them at a spot - in my case it was mainly the cassava I was growing. So culled most of that, but now they seem to enjoy green bananas/plantains. Juts got to harvest the bunch a bit earlier
good luck
Thanks
I think it’s LaNina. Usually this area is pretty dry this time of year and for the coming months. Remnant rainforest down the hill at the creek where they normally would hang. It is pretty lush up top this year still which is the first time since we’ve been here.
Plus I gave the bastard a head start. He’s building his mound on top of a big pile of mulch I had ready to go for ore spring gardens.
DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:We started off with one.
It’s nest was down in the rainforest as you said.
Now we’ve got nine living around the house.
My Mum feeds them corn. It’s out of control.
Bugger that. Hitchcockish.
We've got at least 20 come from the bush around the creek here every day.
you can stop that mound making in its tracks by covering it with a big tarp. worked for me on 5 occasions here last year. Yep, it'll just start another nearby, but keep up the fight and get the trap and you'll sort it out
FR76 that’s not good. 20. Bastards are like this guy and never give up
Thanks GreenJam I’m going to try that. I’ve got to stop it before his girlfriend lays.
udo wrote:https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvmjzq/matthew-taylor-coleman-santa-barb...
UDO. How sad and disturbing.
Night mare animals.destroy veggie gardens, ruthlessly hunt and eat chicken and duck eggs, eat chook food.
FR76. Hi, hope you are well. I fully understand your issue. Is the brush turkey such a pest or just a very successful animal ? , I would say the latter. All of your aforementioned issues about the birds are correct, that’s what they do., total survivors. . The bird is a continuation of one of the oldest lineages of avian fauna, the Megapods. They impact our lives because we’ve cleared or fragmented so much of their original habitat, different types of rainforest, both the bird and people are living way closer to each other than previous times. They’ve modified their behaviour to exploit our own cultural practices, backyard veggie gardens, compost heaps, our propensity to ‘tidy’ and rake everything into piles. Many people abutting forest are stupidly feeding animals and birds and this encourages close contact. Let’s face it our gardens provide a wide array of delights for birds and other animals so to me it’s no surprise you find them on your back step. If your own habitat is quickly vanishing, exploit another . Hope they don’t rip your place apart.
“ Many people abutting forest are stupidly feeding animals and birds and this encourages close contact”
What’s stupid about feeding animals? I think you’ll find that’s a very subjective assertion based upon a provincial cultural trope which has zero scientific or ethical support. Feeding wild animals is satisfying, fun and or mutual benefit to both animals and humans.
DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:“ Many people abutting forest are stupidly feeding animals and birds and this encourages close contact”
What’s stupid about feeding animals? I think you’ll find that’s a very subjective assertion based upon a provincial cultural trope which has zero scientific or ethical support. Feeding wild animals is satisfying, fun and or mutual benefit to both animals and humans.
Feeding wild animals is fun - but maybe should feed them what they normally eat. Not snot blocks (skip to around 2.00 mins). I'm just spewing it didn't get a good grip on her finger. Beautiful birds, but Cockies are a pain in the arse.
DSDS. Wow. You are totally delusional. Maybe you should ask some North Americans if they ever regret feeding, nursing and nurturing young bear cubs and the like . Look what they’ve created, bears are a huge problem in many states of the US and its once again, mostly human induced. Similar situations, habitat clearing, residing in close proximity to animals and their habitats, loss of other food sources, range lands destroyed etc.
You are probably one of these upstart young people like those around our coast who move into an estate where crappy generic homes are being slapped up, but only a year prior was bush or grassland. Come your first Spring and you are on the blower to your local council complaining about snakes.You just don’t get it. Well, you made me laugh, feeding animals is mutually beneficial, such crap and you know it.
But….the bears in North America! Good stuff bloke. Keep the laughs coming.
BTW….I’ve handled more snakes than you’ve forcefully issued incorrect opinions….lots!
“You are probably one of these upstart young people like those around our coast who move into an estate where crappy generic homes are being slapped up, but only a year prior was bush or grassland. Come your first Spring and you are on the blower to your local council complaining about snakes.You just don’t get it. Well, you made me laugh, feeding animals is mutually beneficial, such crap and you know it.“
The above couldn’t really be any less accurate. Where do you live Bloke? Suburb in Melbourne? I suppose you’ve been to the zoo a couple of times….
icandig wrote:DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:“ Many people abutting forest are stupidly feeding animals and birds and this encourages close contact”
What’s stupid about feeding animals? I think you’ll find that’s a very subjective assertion based upon a provincial cultural trope which has zero scientific or ethical support. Feeding wild animals is satisfying, fun and or mutual benefit to both animals and humans.
Feeding wild animals is fun - but maybe should feed them what they normally eat. Not snot blocks (skip to around 2.00 mins). I'm just spewing it didn't get a good grip on her finger. Beautiful birds, but Cockies are a pain in the arse.
Icandig. How are cockatoos a pain in the arse ? We’ve created the problem, once again. Look at many towns on the Great Ocean Road, birds like King Parrots, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, kookaburras, Forest Ravens are on your lap the minute there’s a congregation of people and especially if you have food. The feeding of ham and other meats to Kookaburras on the many decks of a lot of holiday houses is not a good outcome for birds health. Cockatoos chewing out mostly cedar type window frames, wonder why, birds associate it with the smell of trees they know and the search for large wood boring invertebrates.
People are the problem, as always, don’t feed birds and other animals, pretty simple, don’t leave seed bowls out for birds(mostly comprised of exotic plant seeds, sunflower etc.) to then translocate seeds throughout bushland. We often wonder why certain areas of bushland have an irruption of a certain weed species, often its traced back to birds. We just can’t help ourselves, we like to feed birds and others animals because it makes us feel good, thats all.
Animals I feed regularly:
King parrots
Grey butcherbirds
Pied butcherbirds
Magpies
Currawongs
Ravens
Bowerbirds
Spangled drongos
Galahs
Top knot pigeon
Bronzewing pigeon
Rainbow lorikeet
Scaly breasted lorikeet
Kookaburras
Bandicoots
Land mullets
Grey kangaroos
Red necked wallabies
Phascogales
Sugar gliders
Brush tail possums
Ring tail possums
They all love it and I dig feeding them. They live around anyway and they certainly don’t mind a bit of easy Tucker……mutually beneficial!
But….the bears of North America!
“People are the problem, as always,”
And there it is folks. The anti-humanist ideology parroted by the weirdos who think that mankind lives as a seperate entity from nature and our “imposition” is always a negative outcome.
Time to update your thinking bloke.
DudeSweetDudeSweet wrote:But….the bears in North America! Good stuff bloke. Keep the laughs coming.
BTW….I’ve handled more snakes than you’ve forcefully issued incorrect opinions….lots!
“You are probably one of these upstart young people like those around our coast who move into an estate where crappy generic homes are being slapped up, but only a year prior was bush or grassland. Come your first Spring and you are on the blower to your local council complaining about snakes.You just don’t get it. Well, you made me laugh, feeding animals is mutually beneficial, such crap and you know it.“
The above couldn’t really be any less accurate. Where do you live Bloke? Suburb in Melbourne? I suppose you’ve been to the zoo a couple of times….
DSDS You are such a dumb arse. I’ve never heard of an incorrect opinion, because thats what it is you idiot an OPINION. Did you actually go to school ? Swellnet really needs to up its ‘clown’ screening devices before accepting new subscribers. Not that its any of your business, never had anything to hide in life, I live nowhere near a capital city, but if you have any brains in that cranium of yours, you’d pretty quickly work out where i live. No surprise to me you’ve handled and caught many snakes, because that just tells me what type of a person you really are, a Bush Bogan. You’ve probably killed many as well, ultimately you will get bitten and leave this world in a better place. You are from northern NSW or southern Qld.
Cockatoos are a pain in the arse because they congregate on mass, they're noisy and they scare other birds away. A human created problem indeed. Small price to pay for the environment I get to enjoy. Our property is currently surrounded by a beautiful array of birds and other native animals from the superb fairy wren and spotted pardalotes to a recent new arrival, a powerful owl (who I haven't spotted yet, but neighbours tell me it's around). I don't feed the birds regularly, but will occasionally call the king parrots in for a feed as a party trick for guests (native blend is what the packet says). Kookaburras often come in looking for food, but they rarely get any from us. The maggies are the most aggressive, with a family of five set up home but they're all characters and a lot of fun. Usually don't need to feed any of them to get close, most are pretty relaxed around humans. Blessed to be able to enjoy the best of what this environment has to offer. There's a few spangled drongos around, but they don't have feathers.
icandig wrote:Cockatoos are a pain in the arse because they congregate on mass, they're noisy and they scare other birds away. A human created problem indeed. Small price to pay for the environment I get to enjoy. Our property is currently surrounded by a beautiful array of birds and other native animals from the superb fairy wren and spotted pardalotes to a recent new arrival, a powerful owl (who I haven't spotted yet, but neighbours tell me it's around). I don't feed the birds regularly, but will occasionally call the king parrots in for a feed as a party trick for guests (native blend is what the packet says). Kookaburras often come in looking for food, but they rarely get any from us. The maggies are the most aggressive, with a family of five set up home but they're all characters and a lot of fun. Usually don't need to feed any of them to get close, most are pretty relaxed around humans. Blessed to be able to enjoy the best of what this environment has to offer. There's a few spangled drongos around, but they don't have feathers.
Icandig. Nice reply, I’m curious, you have the odd Spangled Drongo, you must be in East Gippsland or further up the East Coast of Oz. We have all of the birds you mentioned but no Spangled Drongos this far south and west.
Ive been involved with a bird group in a Field Naturalist Club for a little over 40 years, totally awesome. On a good dark night, listen for two deep Hoots in a row and you will locate the Powerful Owls. You must have plenty of nocturnal faunal activity like ring-tailed possums, gliders and the like, preferred prey for Powerful Owls. good to chat.
Those cockies in Lorne- thats learned behaviour.
Never happened in the past-now they know there's an easy meal.
Like seagulls at the tip, crows at the dumpsters and beggars at the train stations, etc ,etc.
Thats animals for ya.
AlfredWallace wrote:icandig wrote:Cockatoos are a pain in the arse because they congregate on mass, they're noisy and they scare other birds away. A human created problem indeed. Small price to pay for the environment I get to enjoy. Our property is currently surrounded by a beautiful array of birds and other native animals from the superb fairy wren and spotted pardalotes to a recent new arrival, a powerful owl (who I haven't spotted yet, but neighbours tell me it's around). I don't feed the birds regularly, but will occasionally call the king parrots in for a feed as a party trick for guests (native blend is what the packet says). Kookaburras often come in looking for food, but they rarely get any from us. The maggies are the most aggressive, with a family of five set up home but they're all characters and a lot of fun. Usually don't need to feed any of them to get close, most are pretty relaxed around humans. Blessed to be able to enjoy the best of what this environment has to offer. There's a few spangled drongos around, but they don't have feathers.
Icandig. Nice reply, I’m curious, you have the odd Spangled Drongo, you must be in East Gippsland or further up the East Coast of Oz. We have all of the birds you mentioned but no Spangled Drongos this far south and west.
Ive been involved with a bird group in a Field Naturalist Club for a little over 40 years, totally awesome. On a good dark night, listen for two deep Hoots in a row and you will locate the Powerful Owls. You must have plenty of nocturnal faunal activity like ring-tailed possums, gliders and the like, preferred prey for Powerful Owls. good to chat.
Sorry Alfred. The spotted drongo comment was a lame attempt at a joke. I'm in the Surf Coast / Otways . Have ring tails, never seen a glider - don't think we have them around here.
Patrick, great video!
"Imagine if I required air as well. What a perfect little station."
Cracked me up lol.
icandig wrote:Cockatoos are a pain in the arse because they congregate on mass, they're noisy and they scare other birds away.
Come to my joint and I'll introduce you to a gang of lorrikeets that fart in the general direction of cockatoos. Even when not flying as a gang, say when there's just two or three of them, the lorrikeets noisily assert themselves around the seed bowl and push the cockatoos to the back.
It's like a biker scene in a film where, despite being outnumbered, the crazily dressed villains enter the restaurant and scare the hell out of the upstanding but meek members of society.
Speaking of bears...
Live web cameras of the Annual Pacific Sockeye Salmon spawning run in Alaska near the Juneau Glacier (from July to October), the main run should be starting soon.
icandig wrote:AlfredWallace wrote:icandig wrote:Cockatoos are a pain in the arse because they congregate on mass, they're noisy and they scare other birds away. A human created problem indeed. Small price to pay for the environment I get to enjoy. Our property is currently surrounded by a beautiful array of birds and other native animals from the superb fairy wren and spotted pardalotes to a recent new arrival, a powerful owl (who I haven't spotted yet, but neighbours tell me it's around). I don't feed the birds regularly, but will occasionally call the king parrots in for a feed as a party trick for guests (native blend is what the packet says). Kookaburras often come in looking for food, but they rarely get any from us. The maggies are the most aggressive, with a family of five set up home but they're all characters and a lot of fun. Usually don't need to feed any of them to get close, most are pretty relaxed around humans. Blessed to be able to enjoy the best of what this environment has to offer. There's a few spangled drongos around, but they don't have feathers.
Icandig. Nice reply, I’m curious, you have the odd Spangled Drongo, you must be in East Gippsland or further up the East Coast of Oz. We have all of the birds you mentioned but no Spangled Drongos this far south and west.
Ive been involved with a bird group in a Field Naturalist Club for a little over 40 years, totally awesome. On a good dark night, listen for two deep Hoots in a row and you will locate the Powerful Owls. You must have plenty of nocturnal faunal activity like ring-tailed possums, gliders and the like, preferred prey for Powerful Owls. good to chat.Sorry Alfred. The spotted drongo comment was a lame attempt at a joke. I'm in the Surf Coast / Otways . Have ring tails, never seen a glider - don't think we have them around here.
Icandig. If you are in the Otways there’s definitely gliders. Ring-tail colonies will definitely attract Powerful Owls.
stunet wrote:icandig wrote:Cockatoos are a pain in the arse because they congregate on mass, they're noisy and they scare other birds away.
Come to my joint and I'll introduce you to a gang of lorrikeets that fart in the general direction of cockatoos. Even when not flying as a gang, say when there's just two or three of them, the lorrikeets noisily assert themselves around the seed bowl and push the cockatoos to the back.
It's like a biker scene in a film where, despite being outnumbered, the crazily dressed villains enter the restaurant and scare the hell out of the upstanding but meek members of society.
Stu. Cool. Love watching bird behaviour, great analogy. The Corvids (Ravens, Crows, Rooks etc.) are deemed to be the worlds most intelligent birds, very closely followed by the Parrots and Lorikeets and third in line are the Doves & Pigeons. If anyone is interested, two great reads relating to birds brains and intelligence , The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman , recently had the pleasure of her presentation on Zoom discussing her book content. Fascinating that its now deemed that bird brains have similar genome numbers to humans and a similar degree of intelligence. So the next time somebody calls you a ‘bird brain’, I’ll take it as a compliment and say thanks. Another book worthy of a read, been out awhile now but still worth a mention. ‘Where Song Began’ by Tim Low, eminent biologist. Basically explains where all of the worlds songbirds got their voice, Australia. Our raucous cockatoos, lorikeets, parrots, honeyeaters, miners etc. basically got their voices as a result of the shit fight over flower buds and nectar (sugar). ‘New Nature’ and ‘Feral Future’ are other great books by Tim.
ahh Alfred, that was entertaining. You were quick to call someone a dumb arse. Pot, kettle... I thought the featherless drongo joke was directed at you
anyway, birds are awesome. And speaking of good bird books, for identification, check out 'What bird is that' by Neville Cayley, great pictures, all hand drawn/painted by Neville
The lorries generally run the roost around here but just yesterday I watched a Top Notch Dove give it back to them and then the cheeky bugger chased off a kooky. Didn't see that one coming. He wasn't taking shit from anyone.
GreenJam wrote:ahh Alfred, that was entertaining. You were quick to call someone a dumb arse. Pot, kettle... I thought the featherless drongo joke was directed at you
anyway, birds are awesome. And speaking of good bird books, for identification, check out 'What bird is that' by Neville Cayley, great pictures, all hand drawn/painted by Neville
Greenjam. Yeah what a dumb arse i am, totally aimed at me for sure, only human hey. Great book Gj, an oldy but a goody. Most up to date Australian bird book today relevant to current ornithological data including DNA is ‘The Australian Bird Guide’ Revised Edition, 2019, authors, Peter Menkhorst, Danny Rogers, Rohan Clarke, Jeff Davies, Peter Marsack and Kim Franklin, $50 well spent. Its a great book for assessing ‘GISS’, (General Impression of Size & Shape’) one of the cornerstones of first impressions when you first see a bird. Could talk, plants, birds, invertebrates, fish and anything biological, all day.
If you like bird art, check out the work of William T Cooper from FNQ (recently deceased), his work was recently praised by David Attenborough as the worlds greatest painter of birds.
Missus took this cool shot of one of our feathered Thug Life crew recently
Cool pic , looks like a bit of a shithead .
Gotta love natures pecking order. I didn't realise that pigeons and doves could be aggressive though.
Ironically it was the noisy miners who ended up sorting our strutting top notch out .
Highly under rated bird the noisy miner. Quite useful around here for looking on the under side of foliage for small grubs on my tomato plants etc. Also an excellent bush telegraph for snake sightings etc.
They seem to argue and bitch amongst themselves a lot but when it comes to defending something , their aerial teamwork is quite impressive.
My my who would have thought. I loved revisiting this movie when my kids were young.
https://apple.news/AULcGM_2hRlij57YDopkP2g
Watching Dominic Pair-O-Tay announce that land buy backs are on the cards following the Lismore flood investigation and wondering what that means, if anything at all, for planned retreat on certain stretches of coast.
I saw the other day that Lismore City Council are putting a lot of time and money back into the Lismore CBD.
Doesn't look like they intend to abandon the current CBD and build a new one out of the flood zone. I could be wrong though.
With regards to real estate, not surprisingly there doesn't look like many properties have changed hands since the flood.
Of those that have, houses in the flood zone have basically halved in value, from a pre-flood high of mid $500s down to mid to high $200s.
Fair enough.
But everything out of the flood zone seems to have solidly held its value.
This is off a small sample size though.
Wonder what the state government would offer those in the flood zone in Lismore.
You're right Andy, Lismore CBD is being rebuilt and new businesses are opening up there.
Land buy backs are like for like.
Which means residents need to pay for demolition and removal, then they get a block, which they then need to spend $X on building a new house.
Can't see many people in Union St South Lismore being able to afford to take up that offer, unless the Govt guarantees mortgages .
"Which means residents need to pay for demolition and removal, then they get a block, which they then need to spend $X on building a new house."
Wow, that's essentially meaningless for so many people there.
So they will essentially need, say, a good $300k to start again on a traditional level.
Unless they go for a $100k container home.
100K will barely pay for demolition and removal.
I can’t imagine it’s achievable.
Im confused SF
I found this really interesting. Treasure hunt and possibly the first of the I’ll gotten fortune of a dictator.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-20/philippines-imelda-marcos-and-the...
udo wrote:https://www.news.com.au/travel/australian-holidays/mundi-mundi-bash-at-b...
Shame about that ridiculous clickbait headline.
a reckoning is coming...
and,
something is looming...
and, you don't need to be a genius (or a conspiracy nutter) to see it...
https://www.ft.com/content/25451156-434a-4c36-96ef-774d99c89688?segmentI...
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/something-looming-geopolitically-...
I hope those in positions of power know what else is coming...
and have thought how to 'manage the transition' a little more equitably than it appears they have...
but looking at the last few years... i very much doubt it
Have it cunts