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RE: Desert Wildflowers in CA

I had to smile when I read the original posting of Bev's about her son
complaining about the birds.
I just knew they were starlings.  

For those of you who don't know the Western Australian government has a
team of marksmen who sneak around in the border country between Western
Australia and South Australia using trapped birds as lures to shoot any
starlings that cross into WA. They also hang off ropes and rapel down
the cliffs along the bight there to destroy nests. And these are serious
cliffs.

There are also marksmen  who can be called upon to shoot birds on the
docks as quite often they stow away on freighters.  

For those of us who have never suffered from these birds it may seem a
little extreme, but six weeks of distruption to a garden and you feel
lucky???  even six days would be to much for me.

I guess its all a matter of what you are used to.
Oh by the way one nickname we have here for starlings is "Feathered
WEEDS"
thought I better tie it into plants somewhere  :-)

Cheers, Rod

Rod Randall
Weed Risk Assessment
Weed Science Group, Agriculture Western Australia
Home Page  http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/progserv/plants/weeds/Weedsci.htm

             "I weed..."

> ----------
> From: 	DLind33333
> Reply To: 	DLind33333@aol.com
> Sent: 	Monday, 23 March 1998 1:31 PM
> To: 	elischer@town.nd.edu.au
> Cc: 	medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: 	Re: Desert Wildflowers in CA
> 
> 
> In a message dated 3/22/98 5:13:28 AM, elischer@town.nd.edu.au wrote:
> 
> >My son, visiting Perth (Australia) from California, says to tell you
> >that when he was working in the Kaiser building he used often to go
> and
> >sit/work in the roof garden, which was really beautiful (except when
> the
> >big flocks of birds came and made it impossible to sit under a tree).
> 
> Beverly,
> 
> Those G-d forsaken birds are starlings which roost in the garden by
> the tens
> of thousands from sunset to dawn for sometimes the entire rainy season
> ( our
> winter) and do alot of damage as well as stink up the place. This year
> we were
> lucky and they only stayed 6 weeks. I'd like to think it was the heavy
> pruning
> we did on the boundary hedges (reducing cover for them) but we'll
> never really
> know... It may be the weather pattern.
> 
> Glad your son enjoyed the garden!
> 
> Deborah
>
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