BACK TO NATURE - Connections

By Jamie Walker

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Even in Queensland, night time roosting in winter can be difficult for birds. The cold, particularly during the last few hours before sunrise, is debilitating; causing loss of weight (as fat resources are burned off) and inducing a lasting torpor which is only overcome by the first touch of the sun’s rays.

In cooler climates, farm animals which live out in the open, may face the same problems.

I remember how, in eastern England’s winters, sheep were gathered in and kept closer to home. Some were turned out into small fields of specially grown Marrowstem Kale – a nutritious, winter-hardy fodder crop derived from Wild Cabbage. Once this was totally eaten, the animals would be moved to the next field where more kale awaited. With full bellies and thick fleeces, the sheep remained in good condition.

But there was more to the kale’s benefits than first met the eye. I recall many times seeing the ground around the sheeps’ feet, seeming to be alive with the endless, urgent scurry and flutter of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits feeding in their hundreds.

It was not the only instance I noticed of birds being drawn to places where farmers were active, either through feeding stock, or where their machinery had turned up worms and other invertebrates. In the UK, this would show in the way white clouds of gulls followed a winter plough, and White Storks would do the same in Eastern Europe.

And now I have noticed similar things in south-east Queensland. The dispensing of hay and straw for cattle will attract Finches, Galahs, Wood Ducks and (further inland) Cockatiels and Red-rumped Parrots, to the seeds and insects the fodder contains; and

Black Kites will follow any mechanised implements that disturb the ground’s surface.

Recently, I stood at a pasture’s gate near to Jimna. There were other entrances to these grazing areas, but only this one appeared to be significantly attended by birds. On fences and posts, there was a constant light traffic of Dusky Woodswallows, Rainbow Bee-eaters and Jacky Winters (attractive cousins of Robins) while Brown Treecreepers (able to easily shift between vertical and horizontal feeding) searched the turf.

What made this spot more bird-attracting than the others? It was simply the manure. Cattle had plainly spent more time at this gate, probably because this was where, in previous days, they had received supplementary winter rations. It was the droppings that did the trick – just like what had  almost amounted to a carpet of sheep manure back in those kale fields.

The Wagtails had felt no interest in eating the kale. It was the insects that sustained them: insects drawn to manure, its substance and its warmth. Small flies attract larger, predatory insects and together, they bring in the birds.

By the time you read this, wildlife’s winter stresses will be over, and the ways that different life forms need to benefit from the activities of others (including ourselves) will no longer seem raw. Yet nature’s interconnections never slacken in their vitality or effect – whether it be in the bush, agricultural land use or even our own backyards.