{"id":118181,"date":"2023-09-29T15:18:54","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T05:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/?p=118181"},"modified":"2023-10-02T15:28:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T04:28:12","slug":"committee-for-lorne-where-do-birds-go-to-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/news\/committee-for-lorne-where-do-birds-go-to-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Committee for Lorne: Where do birds go to die?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you ever walk along the beach, in the Otway forest, or even just down the main street in Lorne and marvel at our birdlife?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Birds are everywhere \u2014 particularly in Lorne \u2014 indeed, so much so that the cockies have rapidly become Town Nuisance #1.\u00a0 Not only have they learned to prey on our tourists for inappropriate food handouts, but they have learned to raid and scavenge our bins, distributing rubbish from one end of the town to the other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, while birds surround us in Lorne in their thousands \u2014 indeed, Lorne is a fitting twin to Bodega Bay north of San Francisco, where Alfred Hitchcock filmed his thriller ‘The Birds’ \u2014 there is a conundrum.\u00a0 Why do we so rarely see dead ones?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An occasional carrion crow or magpie may be collateral road kill where, too intent on picking at a carcass, it has been too slow to escape an oncoming car.\u00a0 But, when one thinks about it, it is surprisingly rare to find a ‘dead-un’ in the street, the bush, or on the beach.\u00a0 So, where do birds go to die?<\/span><\/p>\n

There are several potential explanations, the first being their expected lifespan.\u00a0 For example, as the average lifespan of a sulphur-crested cockatoo is between 20 and 40 years [let’s say 30], if our local population numbered 900 birds, then in any given year, 30 birds might be expected to slip from this mortal coil … and that’s less than one a week.\u00a0 Even the Superb Fairywrens live for 5-6 years, so on the same basis, dead wrens would certainly not be thick on the ground.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New Scientist briefly pondered the question in its weekly issue [19\/1\/22].\u00a0 Using their estimate of ~160 million small birds in the UK [a rubbery figure as other estimates range up to 400 million] and assuming an average bird lifespan of two to five years, the author concluded that a small bird dies somewhere in the UK every second.\u00a0 However, the chances of one dropping out of the sky onto your head are slim indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The New Scientist article and its reader responses added several other reasons:<\/span><\/p>\n