Had a nice sighting of a small flock of Red-rumped Parrot (Psephotus haematonotus), grazing on an open area near a Manna Gum plantation next to the River Torrens in St Peters. Two pairs. They were very easy to approach and one wonders about their vulnerability to cats. Shortly after that there was an explosion of bird activity with a pair of Adelaide Rosellas (Platycercus elegans) and a couple of White-plumed Honeyeater (Lichenostomus penicillatus) arriving in the upper story while some lorikeets flashed above the trees like little rockets.
Less welcome was the flock of pestilential Noisy Miners who are in plague proportions in this area. A few weeks ago we witnessed a group of these attacking and probably killing a Silver-eye. The Adelaide City Council has embarked on a program of substory replanting on the river banks and it's hoped that this will provide the smaller bird species with shelter from them.
Alastair
Nice description of happenings along the River Torrens, Alastair. Any terrestrial bird will be vulnerable to cats. A cat even took shelter from me one day in a little raven's nest about 6m up in a Drooping Sheoak, demonstrating its capacity for destroying wildlife even in trees.
Adelaide City Council is on the right track, I believe, in planting understorey plants to provide shelter for smaller birds from noisy miners. Replicating what used to exist is a very helpful method of providing wildlife diversity. You will have noticed the dominance of noisy miners in the Adelaide Parklands, an environment of very open woodland for the most part.
Yes , like Felis Catus the Noisy Miners are here to stay unless there is some kind of community consensus about reducing their numbers. Amazingly resilient bird. One was nesting in an ornamental rose bush about 60 cm above the ground right next to the very busy main footpath leading into St Andrews Hospital. On that topic there was a pair of lorikeets digging a nest in the side of a Plane Tree on Frome Rd, a super busy main arterial road running through the university precinct. They were less than 3 metres above the ground and I think they eventually abandoned this as a bad idea. It was reassuring however to see that Plane Trees can supply nesting hollows.
Rather than digging a nest hollow in that plane tree, Alastair, I'm wondering if they were feasting on sap.
Perhaps, but I am not familiar that that activity - they were working a spot where a branch had died where there was the usual partially rotted hole. It looked like nest digging to me.
Alastair
I know what Woko mean with the palm tree, I have see kookaburra nesting in a palm tree after being told by another birdman. It was a surprise for me to.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
I assume palm tree is a typo, darinnightowl. I can't imagine a kookaburra nesting in a palm tree unless somehow the palm tree developed a hollow & I haven't seen one of those yet!
First question what is a plane tree? Or is this a typo. Sorry my mistake .But I did see a kookaburra nesting in a old palm tree, not native.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
A Plane tree is a large English street tree. Wikipedia is your friend if you want to know more. They are a large, hardy deciduous tree common in Adelaide as a street tree.
Plane trees provide great shade in summer but they drop huge quantities of leaves in autumn which get washed into waterways where they decay quickly, depriving the water & its native inhabitants of oxygen & giving waterways a quick, unnatural nutrient boost. Not a bright idea for a street tree if you want healthy waterways.
Thanks Woko you are never to old to learn.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW