Muttonbirds 12/11/09

More Dead Muttonbirds

Thousands of muttonbirds - upon arriving in Australia to breed - have been found dead along the Victorian and NSW coasts in the past two weeks. The birds, properly known as short-tailed shearwaters, probably died from exhaustion and malnutrition following their migratory flight to Australia from the Arctic Pacific. The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment said about 1000 shearwaters were found washed up between Portland and Apollo Bay. A Government spokesman said the DSE had ''taken samples and performed autopsies on some of the birds''. A Warrnambool-based DSE officer has reportedly suggested a shortage of fish caused the birds to starve. The situation along the Great Ocean Road has been complicated by a red algal bloom that is being blamed for the deaths of a variety of bird species, including cormorants. Dead fish have also been reported by concerned members of the public.

Meanwhile, National Parks and Wildlife Service officers in NSW have concluded that the hundreds of shearwaters that perished on the Central Coast last week succumbed to exhaustion on the final leg of their 30,000-kilometre round trip from the top of the world. Bird experts say there is a natural cull each year of older and inexperienced younger birds, but not often in numbers that cause alarm to the public. Rob Farnes, a Birds Australia observer based in Portland, said he found 86 dead birds on a three-kilometre walk along the coast two days ago. In previous years he has picked up hundreds of shearwaters, but that was over 16 kilometres. ''And I've never seen them inside the harbour before,'' he said. * Age

Crashlanding Birds

Drivers on New Zealand's south island are having to dodge birds which have begun crash-landing on roads. Hutton's shearwaters spend half of the year in Tasmania, then fly to New Zealand to lay their eggs. On the Kaikoura coast, near Christchurch, the sea birds are mistaking roads for flat expanses of water. Park Ranger Mike Morrissey says large numbers are crash landing on the bitumen. "It varies a lot, we've had up to 50 odd in one night," he said. He says the birds are being confused by bright lights. "Round town they're hitting buildings and the hard surfaces." The ranger says luckily, most of the birds have not been hurt, just stunned. *ABC

Ducks Shot in S.A.

The Belair Park Golf Club has copped an angry backlash from people across the country following its controversial wood duck cull. About 30 ducks were killed by a registered duck shooter earlier this month to cut back the unusually high numbers plaguing the golfing greens, under a permit granted by the National Parks and Wildlife. One of the club's directors Ron Marshall said he'd been bombarded by ``at least 50 emails from people all over the country'' angered at the cull after reading about it on adelaidenow.com.au ``I was also abused over the phone by a woman from Victoria,'' he said. ``Everyone jumps on the bandwagon but most people don't understand what's going on and that the (Belair) National Park supported us in this.'' Mr Marshall said he responded to each email, explaining the reasons for the cull and received ``understanding'' replies. ``It's the first time we've done it in the five years we've been here and we won't be doing it again.

``The major thing people have to understand is that it was an occupational health and safety hazard with people walking into the restaurant with duck faeces on their shoes and little babies crawling along the floor picking it up and putting it in their mouths. ``You're the devil if you do and the devil if you don't.'' Mr Marshall said the cull was a ``last resort'' after rubber snakes and eagle kites - aimed to scare off the ducks - and Duck Off herbicide failed to work. `We've saved more ducks than we've destroyed. Last year alone we would have saved 50 or 60 birds and some koalas by taking them to the (Belair National Park).''

A spokesman for the Department of Environment and Heritage, who issued the permit, said the culling of 40 ducks was approved ``to encourage the broader population to move to other areas''. Bev Langley, from the Cherry Gardens Minton Farm Animal Rescue Centre, said the cull was ``disappointing but bound to happen''. ``It's just an unfortunate thing, sometimes people and animals do clash,'' she said. Friends of Belair National Park president Mike Cerchez said he didn't see ``a big issue'' with the cull. ``The wood ducks are native but they're not rare and they had permission,'' he said. A group of concerned residents was expected to hold a demonstration at the entrance of the golf club on Saturday, October 24, after the paper's deadline. Organiser Sally Sutton, of Hawthorndene, said she expected a ``strong turnout'' after emailing up to 100 people and putting up posters in Blackwood. *Hills Valley Messenger

Muttonbirds

Mutton birds in the midst of their annual migration are crashing onto NSW beaches because of exhaustion, warns a wildlife rescue group. The NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service says it has been inundated with exhausted birds, mainly short-tailed shearwaters, or Tasmanian mutton birds as they are known. These ``wanderers of the sea'' make one of the longest annual trips of any bird species, skirting around the Pacific Ocean for about six or seven months. The rescue group said it was caring for birds that had been rescued from Sydney's beaches.

``Many are exhausted from the long migration and crash onto suburban and city beaches before they reach home,'' the group said. ``In some years many hundreds of birds can be found dead or dying on beaches right along the coast of NSW.'' The group said mortality rates during migration can be very high, with up to 1600 birds dying per kilometre in particularly bad years. However, it said the short-tailed shearwater was among the world's most populous birds. There was no cause for alarm as it was a process of ``natural mortality'', the group said. `The gruelling migration is perhaps nature's way of sorting the weak from the strong,'' it said. *SMH

Ed Comment; Actually WIRES is wrong. Shearwater numbers are believed to be very low, and in Tasmania they are still legally hunted and eaten.