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The Forum > Article Comments > Predators and the food chain and preventing the suburban extinction of small native creatures > Comments

Predators and the food chain and preventing the suburban extinction of small native creatures : Comments

By Valerie Yule, published 31/8/2015

Every spring there are fewer little birds. Wrens and tits, which were quite plentiful in our garden twenty years ago, seem to have gone.

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I grow year round flowers for butterflies and native bees. You just need an area with good sun.

For some types of native bees, you can just provide shelter if you like, eg., some drilled holes on timber (Google).

Indian Myna Pest (don't confuse with the playful Aussie Noisy Miner)
Could dog and cat owners ensure they are not inadvertently feeding the Indian Myna pest?

As well, make one of the simple Indian Myna traps. Phone a local bird breeder who will inform you on the quick mechanical bloodless way to kill.

Rodenticides
Don't use the 'one-shot' poisons because the poison in the rodent's body will kill an owl or other predator.

I don't hand feed any birds or other native animals.
Posted by onthebeach, Tuesday, 1 September 2015 9:45:00 AM
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Onthebeach, those damn native bees used to give me a hard time when I was hybridising daylilies some years back.

We had a large natural hive of the little ones with the 2 gold bars. They had built it on the side of a cadgee gum, incorporating a couple of branches. It was not a good spot, as the cadgees shed their bark every year. The side branches must have helped as it lasted about 12 years, until a very large storm brought half of it down. I had never before, or since seen this poultice type of hive on the side of a tree trunk.

Those little buggers rose at very first light, & had collected all the pollen from a couple of hundred daylilies very soon thereafter. I had to guess when the flowers would bloom, & cover both the ones I wanted pollen from, & those I wanted to fertilise the night before, then keep the fertilised flower covered all day to avoid the bees changing my choice of donor for me.

They must have a high need for water. There were always large numbers around the bird bath, & a damp spot on a cement water trough, where the cement was a little porous. Strangely they became annoyed when the sprinklers were going near their hive, & would attack & sting anyone who ventured too close at these times.

Nature is truly wonderful, when you have the time to study it.
Posted by Hasbeen, Tuesday, 1 September 2015 9:13:12 PM
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Is Mise, I don't believe you have ever tried to eat a wood duck.

My advice from a once very broke friend was that after 3/4 of an hour pressure cooking, a wood duck was still more use to resole your boot, than put in your mouth.
Posted by Hasbeen, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 12:01:38 AM
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