The Mallee Fowl

[onetrack]

The ABC has run a great story about the Mallee Fowl in NW Victoria. They're interviewing an old local farmer who has been taking an interest in the local Mallee Fowl, for what appears to be nearly all his life.

His knowledge of the birds behaviour and activities is substantial - and in all the years I was working around the W.A. Wheatbelt, and came across hundreds of Mallee Fowl nests, I never saw a single Mallee Fowl as quiet and unafraid of humans, as the pair this old bloke has made friends with.

In the W.A. Wheatbelt, they're an exceptionally flighty bird, and will take to their heels or fly, as soon as you spot them from anything under 100M away.

The foxes kill them on a huge basis, and their numbers in W.A. are only a fraction of what they were, even as little as 40 years ago.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/victorian-endangered-twice-widowed-malleefowl-finds-new-mate/101238704

[Bruce Tuncks]

Here in the west wimmera, we are not far from the Mallee. Our local member is the member for Mallee.

Alas, I have never seen a mallee fowl.

Thanks onetrack.

[old man emu]

I wonder if the Greens would ever consider support the idea of putting a bounty on feral carnivores and omnivores in order to protect our unique avian and mammalian fauna? Or do they hold all life sacred, no matter what devastation the ferals cause? 

[onetrack]

You'd need to keep the payout down to about 5c a scalp or the payout would be enormous. I STR the numbers of feral cats alone in Australia could be as high as 6M.

The fox numbers aren't far behind. The locals in a small town down South in W.A. had a 3-day, long weekend fox shoot a few years ago, they invited in anyone who wanted to have a shootup.

I recall there were about 60 shooters spotlighting in vehicles only within a few kms of the town, and they nailed over 800 foxes in that 3 day period.

[facthunter]

Surely they are smarter than that. Feral cats  and even domestic ones love catching birds. Nev

[spacesailor]

Welling NZ.

A farmer lost lots of lambs to feral dogs, and put out a message for all shooters to come & clear his property.

BUT

The police stopped that, then he somehow got the army in, who took out 30 dogs in one shoot.

 Most were pets !. Who,s owner's had sworn that their pets weren't the problem.

I have Never heard of a ' feral Cat ', attacking people. Like you hear of ' dog attacks '.

My,soninlaw has a Husky,  but the neighbors dog jumped over his fence & bit him hard.

Three days off work, 

AND

the neighbor denied it could have been his dog, ( cross bred Bull Terrier  ).

" now there,s an AXE awaiting the dogs next visit "!.

the owner might be happy with the outcome of taking that dog ' home ' in a bag.

spacesailor

 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Thoughtless management of pets in general and dogs in particular must be the root cause of lots of neighbourhood discord.
 

I fell out with the lady next door over her little yappy pooch. She’d leave for work at 5am and the mongrel thing would then bark continuously for hours. I was studying for my Masters at the time, on top of a stressful job and community committments, so would rarely get to bed before 2am. She fobbed off my polite requests, unable to believe her little gem guilty.  One morning, totally sleep deprived, I did my block and chased the mongrel around her yard, pelting it with oranges off her tree. That resulted in angy accusations and claims for vet. bills. 

[red750]

Our dog is like that, but he lives in the house, only going out on a lead. He is my daughter's dog, and she is afraid the neighbours Rottweiler cross bitch, who has jumped the 6'6" fence into our yard, will tear him apart.

 

My daughter's 3 year old male cats, which have never been outside for the same reason, love to tease the dog, climbing on anything above his reach, causing him to bark and get into trouble. He has the loudest,sharpest bark. Then one of the cats will come down and fight with him, or sit just out of his reach and swipe him with a paw. And he barks and whimpers when she leaves the house to do her School Crossing Supervisor duties.  

[Yenn]

I had a holiday in India years ago and the dog problem there was so bad that I kicked every dog I found asleep in the daytime, to get my own back for the barking at night.

[facthunter]

Last.time I was at Coober Pedy I started all the Dogs barking late at night. I'm still a naughty little devil at heart. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

Living underground, how could the locals hear the plurry dogs?

[onetrack]

The funniest exercise I've ever had with animals - and it wasn't dogs or cats - was in Norseman, W.A. The brother and I owned a gold mine about 60kms N of Norseman, and we used to haul regular loads of gold ore down to the Norseman State Battery (crushing setup owned by the W.A. Govt). We had an early cab-over Mack, pulling a semi-tipper, and the Mack was started with an air starter.

 

This setup was a hangover from North America, where the air starter is of great advantage in bitterly cold Nth American Winters, as the air starter spins the engine really fast, to ensure a quick start when cold - and of course, batteries are not needed, as batteries don't do well with starting on 40 below mornings.

 

The Ingersoll-Rand air starter dumps a huge volume of air from a port on the bottom of the starter when you hit the button - and this air dump made a God-awful screech that frightened 6 mths growth out of anyone who had never heard an air starter on a truck before.

The outlet port on the starter originally had a lightly-spring-loaded plate on it, which was supposed to offer some kind of noise damping, but I don't think the plate was ever very effective, and they mostly fell off after a couple of years, because the spring either broke, or rusted through. No-one ever bothered replacing the sound-stifling plates, once they fell off.

 

Anyway, on this day, it was about 3:30PM on a hot, lazy Norseman afternoon, and I'd just tipped a load of gold ore off at the battery, and had driven downtown to get some food supplies. I parked the Mack in a wide side street, which ran alongside the Postmasters house backyard. In the backyard of this house, the Postmaster had a real menagerie of animals - he had several pet 'roos, a number of Peahens, and assorted aviaries full of various birds.

The backyard had a wire mesh double gate that fronted the side street, and I parked up, right near this gate - and walked around the back of the truck to the corner of the block, then turned down the main street where the shops were.

 

I got all my supplies requirements and went back to the Mack and put everything on the passenger side floor. While I was doing this, several 'roos poked their noses up against the gates, to see what I was doing, and there were several peahens grazing on the lawn.

I duly climbed into the Mack - and hit the starter. Well, you'd think a bomb had gone off in the yard! The starter went SCREEEECH! - the 'roos took off across the yard like they'd been shot at - all the peahens took to the air and flew up into the trees in the backyard, all screeching, RA-AA-A-PE!! RA-AA-A-PE!! RA-AA-AA-PE!! at their loudest - and every bird, in every cage, went ballistic with screeches and cries, like nothing you've ever heard!

 

I think there must have been a bunch of Cockatoos in there, judging by the raucous noise. I don't know where the 'roos went, they just vanished somewhere, and the cacophony kept up for a couple of minutes, drowning out the noise of the Mack engine, as I ran it at a fast idle, to raise air pressure.

I took off as soon as I had adequate air pressure up, as I was sure there'd be a gathering of townsfolk out to lynch me in short order, such was the racket I'd created! However, no-one came out from anywhere, it must have been too hot - but I bet I disturbed a few naps!

[Old Koreelah]

Yes OT, air starters sure are a favoured weapon of the practical joker. I have a neighbour who spends most of his life operating machines and the bastard loves nothing more than sneaking up behind my while, with earmuff on, I’m wizzing the grass on my driveway.

[Marty_d]

12 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

Yes OT, air starters sure are a favoured weapon of the practical joker. I have a neighbour who spends most of his life operating machines and the bastard loves nothing more than sneaking up behind my while, with earmuff on, I’m wizzing the grass on my driveway.

That could be dangerous, he might get wet when you jump and spin around.  By the way you forgot the "on" in the last sentence.

[Old Koreelah]

12 hours ago, Marty_d said:

That could be dangerous, he might get wet when you jump and spin around.  By the way you forgot the "on" in the last sentence.

Wizzer = line trimmer/whipper snipper.

[Marty_d]

I know OK.  Just attempting humour.

[facthunter]

Somebody's gotta do it. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

 Best left to professionals..

 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

Professional comedians all suffer from acute depression.  That's not funny. Nev

[Marty_d]

7 hours ago, facthunter said:

Professional comedians all suffer from acute depression.  That's not funny. Nev

That's possibly because they're (mostly) highly intelligent and observant people who the world as it is.

 

[facthunter]

 Today anyone who is not depressed must be ON something to disconnect  them from reality. Papers etc only print BAD stuff and adverts make you feel  you HAVE to buy stuff you can't afford in order to be happy..  Why would you feel happy, unless you can get away from the $#1T? Nev

[ClintonB]

Off topic, but I think the lifestyle I had as a kid was beneficial, we were outside, fishing, biking, hunting for dinner, helping in yard, at shearing sheds and in general not stuck inside with headphones on and a device in our face.

We weren’t being told we had to wear certain things, not having to belong to the rainbow alphabet crowd to fit in.

I don’t recall every one being depressed then. Even though we didn’t have a lot, life was good. 32 CM tv in lounge room, full bellies of homemade food, dad made sure we had a roof over our heads and good schooling.

I think some of these cases of depression are self inflicted by modern lifestyle.

just think if we had a WW2 situation nowadays, I don’t think the young people would or could step up like they did back then, we have become too soft as a society 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I lament not being brought up on a farm or similar setting. I was lucky enought to go to a private school in Melbourne for a couple of years that had a Dairy farm not too far out. I was in year 8, when I first went, and it was a revalation. I loved it so much, I went back in the holdiays to help out (different times then). In year 9, I couldn't wait for our "camp" to the farm and really enjoyed everythign farm life offered. Sadly, I finished at the end of year 9. And city life and getting an urban/city job, as well as girls took over.

 

Fast forward 30 years, and I finally had a small holding over here.. Sadly, the much better half was not cut out for it despite growing up in a rural village - three years of great fun for me, but when we lost some chickens to foxes, it was too much for her as she treated them like pets. For me, it was off to the local battery hen farm, to pick up the rejected layers at £1 each.. After two weeks, they had their plumes back, and were each laying an egg a day. But, the loss had sewn the seeds and now we run an Air BnB in a small village. I prefer the sheep, ducks and chickens.

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[Old Koreelah]

4 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

…it was off to the local battery hen farm, to pick up the rejected layers at £1 each.. After two weeks, they had their plumes back, and were each laying an egg a day…

What applies to animals crowded into feedlots also applies to us humans: the more we are isolated from nature, the sicker we become. There have been several projects to rehabilitate stuffed-up humans with big doses of nature and animals and the results have been inspirational. I have a family member who has battled The Black Dog for decades; I’d love to put him to work in some remote project.

[facthunter]

Like a Brat camp for oldies?  Animals always SMELL so "organic". Rather smell a speedway bike after it's been running.   Nev