Birds on sports fields

[ledzep]

I go past the sports field opposite the Lady Norwood Rose Gardens in Wellington botanic gardens most days of the week. A few years ago there used to be lots of birds on the field - 80 - 90 blackbirds, one or two Song Thrush, sparrows, feeding. In the past year there is only a handful of birds - 3 or 4 blackbirds, still the odd Song Thrush, and maybe a sparrow or two. With occasional visits of 2 - 4 Magpies. My question is, do they put something on the sports fields to discourage birds feeding, or has something else decimated the population of Blackbirds (eg the Falcon's which are more frequent in the area)?

[Colin Miskelly]

My vote is a nasty toxin killing the invertebrate fauna. There wasn't a blackbird to be seen on several hectares of waterlogged sports fields at Liardet Street Park (Berhampore, Wellington) on Sunday, but nearby smaller grass areas not used for sport had blackbirds at their usual density.

Ngā mihi
Colin

[ledzep]

That would make sense. The few birds seem to be near the fence line rather than the middle of the field, perhaps where whatever toxins are on the field haven't killed so many insects in the ground.

[Steps]

Could be the selective broad leaf weed killers. Pretty sure they effect bees, so most likely also effect other ground insects.
Maybe also partly explain why we dont see the huge numbers of sea bird on playing fields during storms, anymore?

[Jan]

The grassy basins designed to hold back stormwater and filter it slowly into streams around SW Chch, not being used for sports fields, so not sprayed, I guess; do have masses of gulls, SWPlover and other birds feasting on worms etc.

[ledzep]

Parliament ground staff must use different techniques. There were 23 Blackbirds on the small lawn outside Parliament on Monday.

[Davidthomas]

Sports fields are also probably significantly more compacted making it harder for worms and the like to burrow.

[zarkov]

Modern sports fields are usually sand based.

Good for drainage, but maybe not so much for worms.

Possibly worms are discouraged since they would be counter productive.