It’s all about the birds in our bushland suburb

You can’t help being aware of the abundance of birds that call the Coal Point peninsula home. From the early morning kak of the kookaburras, the daytime chattering of lorikeets to the soothing hoots of the nocturnal owls, there’s hardly a time throughout the day when our bird-buddies are absent from our ears.

This ever-present connection to nature is good for our mental health and the bushland that they need to survive offers another layer of ambient wellbeing.

Neighbours Noticing Nature

“Just wanted you to know we’ve been visited lately by a juvenile Blue-faced Honeyeater but haven’t seen any adults as yet. The juvenile doesn’t have the blue area around the eyes.

Other locals may have seen this very striking bird, but we’ve never had the privilege of such a visit in the 39 years we’ve lived in Coal Point.

It’s such a treat to sit on our deck surrounded by beautiful big trees and greet our feathered friends every day”.

Want to know about the Birds in your Backyard?

The Autumn seasonal survey by BirdLife Australia is now on until the end of April. The citizen science survey tracks the health of our urban birds, and allows the urban bird team to monitor the impact of our gardens, outdoor spaces and even our own behaviours on bird populations. A lot can be learnt from Birds in Backyard surveys, such as how different types of gardens can attract different types of birds, and which features birds may be avoiding or are negatively affected by. The data were recently used in a study showing the decline of even some of our most common birds in major cities across Australia.

To participate in the survey spend 20 minutes somewhere you can view birds - your backyard, or other favourite space, record the bird species you see and count how many there are. A series of questions are also asked about your garden - like what sort of plants you have, if you have pets and if you feed birds.

If you are unsure where or how to start, then fear not! The Birdata web portal and app automatically gives you a list of 30 birds (including pictures!) from your region to choose from as a starting point.You can also win great prizes if you enter your surveys in Birdata.

A Paw Pledge

The Invasive Species Council (ISC) was formed in 2002 to seek stronger laws, policies and programs to keep Australian biodiversity safe from weeds, feral animals and other invaders. Their focus is on prevention and early action.

One of the key projects of the ISC is the Cats in Australia project. They are working to ensure that pet cats are kept safe at home, and that there is support through local, state and federal government for effective cat containment.

Whether you love them or not, cats are a catastrophe for our native animals.

An estimated 8 million animals die daily, killed by the 5 million feral and roaming pet cats in Australia – doing what comes naturally to them.

The ISC is advocating for a dramatic increase in government action to reduce this devastating death toll and prevent further extinctions caused by cats. And to win government action, governments need to see Australian cat owners, cat lovers or otherwise, publicly showing support for our wildlife. We need to show them that cat containment and effective action on feral cats is popular!

The ISC has done the research and knows the public choose our native animals – alive – over roaming cats. Australians support both cat containment and action on feral cats when they are shown the facts and understand what’s at stake. Cat owner or not, Aussies love nature and want to care for our Australian bush critters.

The ISC’s pledge asks if you are a cat owner (past or present) or if you simply support better protection for wildlife from cats. Many of us, love our furry feline friends, but we also know that they are purrfect indoors.

Please put up your paw to show your support for action on cats by taking the pledge today. https://invasives.org.au/how-to-help/take-action/extinction-emergency/

A fact sheet on the research findings on pet cats is an alarming read

The Coal Point CATaclysm.

Our local wildlife carer Catherine Wroe provided this insight into cats in our community.

“I’ve mainly only cared for birds and blue-tongued lizards attacked by cats, but I have rescued other species and passed them onto other carers. The birds include most species that are found around here, and young birds are particularly at risk because they aren’t able to fly so well and their fear response hasn’t fully developed.

Birds include eastern rosellas, king parrots, grey and pied butcher birds, magpies, kookaburras, tawny frogmouths, noisy miners, wattlebirds, sacred kingfishers, dollarbirds, quail, scarlet honeyeaters, owlet nightjars, crested pigeons, rainbow and scaly-breasted lorikeets, plovers, figbirds and satin bowerbirds. Other animals I’ve rescued/picked up after being attacked by cats are ringtail and young brushtailed possums, sugar gliders, and feather-tailed gliders. And of course, there’s lots of little skinks, antechinus, and snakes that are attacked or killed that aren’t reported.

Animals don’t have to be injured to die from cat attacks. The bacteria in cats’ saliva is fatal to wildlife, so just being held in a cat’s mouth can cause an infection that will kill them. Therefore, whenever any wildlife is suspected of being attacked by a cat, they require antibiotics. Also, cats often don’t bring wildlife home, so many animals die without their owner’s knowledge.”

Catherine is a wonderful community asset. She is calm and with her non-judgemental manner she provides us with a lifeline for injured wildlife. Birds have a much better chance of surviving if they come to Catherine rather than going straight to the vets unless they need euthanising - it’s very stressful for wildlife at vet clinics, and they often don’t get examined for quite a while. Catherine can generally treat them at her place or take them to the vets if necessary. If you have injured wildlife please let Catherine Wroe know-0412 093 030.