Dear friends and fellow nature lovers.
For some time now I have wondered why my beautiful local area has diminishing stocks of native birds. In light of the current Australian government native bird count I find it necessary to bring to your attention the fact that as well as cats the introduced Indian Myna bird is out of control within our neighbourhoods. Every night outside the Prahran Town Hall thousands of these vermin converge and defecate all over the foot path and create an enormous barrage of ugly noise. These birds form huge flocks to roost at night, flying in from km's away to communal trees. There are a number of councils who have introduced eradication programmes and have found that getting rid of these feral birds leads to an increase in our beautiful native bird populations. You may not know that the Indian Myna is a nest raider, killing young birds out of the nest as well as beneficial insect species. They also gang up on larger birds like Magpies, Kookaburras and our native parrots and cockatoos and steal their nests. Australia has some of the tiniest and most beautiful micro birds in the World and they are unique. Once they are gone we will never see their like again.
Here is a link http://fennerschool-associated.anu.edu.au/myna/problem.html
It would be simple and inexpensive to erect capture cages on the roof of the Prahran town hall and other gathering points around towns. These traps are available pre-fabricated and lure the birds in. They can then be humanely euthanized.
The phrase "Canetoads of the sky" is no exaggeration, but the difference is that this problem can quickly and efficiently be solved.
Please take my request seriously as our natives need as much help as they can get due to dwindling environmental space and other Human caused pressures.
I am about to create a group and intend to go to the media in regards to this issue as it troubles me greatly.
If you are a member of a neighbourhood group, a councillor or are in a government position please look into this issue before its too late. Like most Australian flora and fauna our birds are unique and once gone they'll never be seen again.
Can you imagine our beautiful coastal surrounds populated by some of the most beautiful birds in the world? They just need a helping hand to get rid of these marauding killing machines.
Kind regards, Stephen Hooper.
