If you didn't see the report on ABC TV last night, here it is. A "must see".
A while ago I thought I cracked a joke, when I answered to someone on BIBY who asked what he could do to get deter the birds in his trees that disturbed his sleep? Back then ,my answer was, "cut all the trees down" Thinking nobody would ever do this.
But, boy was I wrong
, watch this video and you will see, that is exactly what Queenslanders have been doing
Any thoughts on this??? Is this within the range of "normal"?
The birds will move on soon, as they say. Yee Haw
, the trees won't grow back
What a bunch of stupid hicks
Thats my thought on this.
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
When the first guy is talking in the bar you can still hear the Galahs outside! Serves them right, the Galahs are probably complaining about having all their trees cut down!
Personally, I don't think cutting trees down to get rid of birds is normal; however it seems Town Councils think differently from the rest of us. My local council has just recently decided that throughout the area they have let trees grow too closely to powerlines. The solution? To go and cut the trees back so that they are at least about 3m away from the powerlines. Oh, and if the trunk of the tree is in that space, they cut it off completely.
Bizarre. But then Queensland always was; in Toowoomba, ('The Garden City') they slash massive holes through the tops of massive trees rather than going to the effort of moving the powerlines underground.
I presume the town referred to in the report is Bullyard. I Google-earthed Bullyard & the town seems to have a reasonable amount of bushland in its vicinity but beyond that it seems to have been largely cleared, presumably for agriculture, so it's little wonder the town is an oasis in drought time if there are resources there which the birds can't obtain in their natural habitat. As well, galahs have been advantaged by Australian agriculture practices where lots of grain growing & grain spillage is to their liking so generally their numbers have increased anyway.
So for a permanent solution to be found for the problem perhaps the locals need to be encouraged to look a little more widely than the damage & inconvenience the birds are causing. I note, too, that if ever there was an approach to encourage galahs to perch on power lines it's to slash alternative perches. However, from what I know of Queensland it seems unlikely the culture there would adopt a broader approach so I fear, based on what I've observed at Strathalbyn in SA, that, unless the drought breaks, the good burghers of Bullyard will spend millions of dollars on ineffective, hair-brained schemes to rid the town of galahs.
And while I'm at it it's interesting that the ABC's lack of analysis didn't look at the broader picture. More dumbing down of the national broadcaster, sadly.
Peter
Thanks for the correction, Peter. Boulia seems to be much too far west to have a grain industry.
The Google Earth picture was taken this year & drought abounds. My guess is that the galahs breed in trees along the Burk River which runs to the east of town but it would be interesting to know exactly what attracts the birds into town. If it's water then maybe there's a need to cover water sources.
It seems electricity-dependent communities in remote Australian locations are more subject to the vagaries of nature than other communities. In Boulia's case undergrounding of the power lines would seem to be a solution to the galah vagary but whether the broader community is willing to bear the cost is another question. Perhaps this is yet another example of modern expectations conflicting with nature & where nature usually comes off second best.
Yes if there is a bird problem it can only be the fault of the trees. And if expert analysis of the situation and effective solutions are required, just consult the pisspots in the pub.
....or one of my neighbours, the woman from down the road came up with a great remark, she said: Nobody in Australia should be allowed to plant gum trees , they are a fire risk.
Great point, isn't it? Or the neighbour that cut 10 old trees down, because it had sugar gliders living in them. (now the gliders have moved to my trees
)
(Night Parrot, the world is full of idiots, and as my mother used to say, they multiply)
M-L
Sorry, did I misunderstand you Araminta?
Are you saying they cut the trees down because there were sugar gliders in them?
Just thought I should check in case I interpreted it wrong.
Sadly you didn’t misunderstand. He even had approval . He convinced the Council that the trees were dangerous and could fall on the power lines and start bushfires. The trees were far away from any power lines, but because I live in an “extreme fire danger “ area, the power company even cut those trees down for him. For some reason the guy told me about the real reason, (you know, friendly neighbour), and was very proud of the fact the possums are gone now, because they made such a mess. He is one of those people that rake up every leaf and burn every stick.
M-L
Why? Why would someone feel the necessity to do that? I would have though that sugar gliders would have at least been saved by the subconscious cute factor.
This Boulia place looks like it has about five and a half trees in total (according to google earth) and they decide to cut them down??? Just brilliant. Other countries grow trees in the desert to make them habitable but not in Queensland. The Government up there just made land clearing much easier by reducing Government oversight. They will be begging us for water when they dry themselves up. The reef will be covered in paddocks because of land erosion. Then it will be the Galahs fault.