You will not be surprised Ludwig to know I agree with every word.
Except the myna birds, they flock screech steel and kill.
I know of no other except cane toads that has little old Lady's in big numbers meeting in schools of art and clubs to find out how to kill them.
Aware some have few or none, we have millions, beach side trees have hundreds each night screeching for an hour.
Once the home of mag pies now only these awful things.
Councils lend traps and tell us how to kill them, so we are not alone.
jayb you describe the reason Aussie men have sheds/mates clubs/ fishing gear and golf!
I , every man, uses the same tactic, that bloke talking woman cracks me up!
Best adds ever the whisperer telling the fiery one let him have another beer too!
Let us both be glad they do not hear what they are called down the pub behind their backs.
And that just some times we can out fox them.

Sparrows. When I was growing up in the Burdekin, in Ayr, the Italians used cast nets to catch hundreds of them. Then they ate them. I guess they did their best to eradicate them, but failed.

Feral pigs: another scourge. We shot 60 in one sitting at one water hole in one afternoon near Lockhart River in the 80's. Never made a dent in the population. You have no idea of the damage they do.

Ludwig, on killing minor Birds. You have to admit pinging them with a Daisy is great sport. I had a Diana 16 when I was a kid. One of my mates had one of those pump action ones.

Lugwig: we had better get used to the fact that our ecology has changed irreversibly, due to hundreds of species of ferals….

I guess that applies with everything controversial, doesn't it? ;-)

I neglected to mention common starlings, which are probably Australia’s worst feral bird.

I actually find mynas quite endearing. Their general character and cheekiness is entertaining. You commonly see groups of four, presumably two mated pairs, having a lovely little chat, replete with much head-bobbing.

I can hear them calling and celebrating the wonderful winter sunshine right now here in the middle of Cairns. And I can also hear brown honeyeaters, yellow honeyeaters and white-throated honeyeaters calling… all of which are just the sorts of small native birds that you’d expect mynas to displace if they were really as nasty as we are led to believe by some people. (I’m not referring to you Belly, but to others over the years that I’ve heard being very unkind to poor wittle mynabirds!)

Yes I’ve seen mynas ganging up on what appeared to be an injured bird. But I don’t think you should single them out as having a darker side to their character – many birds are inherently aggressive and quite nasty at times.

I’ve seen pretty nasty stuff not only from those reputed to be aggressive, but also from the likes of red wattlebirds, blue-faced honeyeaters and even small species like woodswallows. Kookaburras and kites seem to cop a bucketing from all manner of small birds! All sorts of birds are aggressive to each other, of the same species and to other species that are both smaller and larger than themselves. I have observed that sort of thing a lot over the last 13 years that I’ve been a full-on birdo!

continued

WA is free of mynas and also free of the most significant feral birds of the east – starlings and sparrows.

But it does not have a greater concentration of native birds in intensively humanised landscapes. The comparison of WA to eastern Australia clearly shows that these feral birds are pretty low-key all-considered.

WA shares a couple of feral birds with the east – rock doves and spotted turtle doves and it has one species that is not in the eastern states – laughing turtle doves.

I LIKE the feathered ferals of humanised landscapes!

I say: good on them!

Humans have so totally changed these environments, to the enormous detriment of most species. A small number of feral species have joined them and perhaps made it another 0.000000001% worse for a few natives!

But a pretty reasonable suite of native species persist in these totally unnatural environments.

All good stuff as far as I’m concerned….given that we have to have such a monumental change to our natural ecology in the first place!

Ludwig pairs? I never see less than 40!
Are we talking about the same birds.
No sparrows here no room for the little fast food packs once the Ferrel's came.
jayb, seems you got the fear your trouble and strife would see your posts!
Not a problem for me now but try being a ham radio operator! leaving the war zone to hide in the shed gets them off side!

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/04/08/2044900.htm
LUDWIG!
I understand only a very rough chance exists you will revisit this thread.
But if you do can you confirm, picture in link, this is the bird you speak about?
Right now, spring on way, a count puts 83 in my yard at morning and night.