Facilities
/ Grounds Update

Shane Jacobs

With world environment day coming up on the 5th of June I thought it was a good chance for staff and students to reflect on the amazing setting MSC has around it.

From the higher areas of the school towards the gym if you cast your eye over the school and beyond the school boundary’s you really get a sense of how many trees Maffra has and how lucky we are to live in such a nice environment.

With all those trees comes all the insects, bees and birds that share that habitat as their home and in saying that I thought I’d give everyone a few fun? facts on 3 of the birds we see around the school every day.

Short Billed Corellas are also known as Little Corellas, they are mostly white, with a fleshy blue eye-ring and a pale rose-pink patch between the eye and beak.

I’m sure you are all VERY familiar with these guys and have seen them descend on the school in their hundreds screeching the place down before shredding some of the trees and chewing up everything they can

Corella’s live for up to 50 years of age even longer and although they can be total clowns and quite funny to watch, they are also super destructive and have caused a lot of issues around the school digging up the onion grass on the oval etc.

Currently there are not too many Corella’s around however I have a native bird specialist coming out to see what we can do to try and discourage them hanging out at Maffra Secondary College.

Satin Bowerbirds

MSC are lucky enough to have some of these guys flying around school so see if you can spot one.

Bowerbirds build an avenue made of two walls of vertically placed sticks which is called a bower, (hence the name Bowerbird) to try and impress the ladies.

In and around the bower, the male places a variety of brightly coloured objects he has collected, male bowerbirds decorate their nests with bright blue objects in an attempt to nab the perfect partner!

Most likely the bower birds at MSC have some nests close by, possibly on the Mafeking Hill Reserve next to the school where I’m sure they try and impress the females with a variety of blue pen lids and other blue items found around school.

Never cross a crow - it will remember your face.

Crows can remember human faces associated with stressful situations for up to five years and they’ll also warn their friends.

Crows are known for their extraordinary smarts and have been observed making tools to dig food out of tight spots, you have probably even seen them flying around school with food containers in their beaks or punching holes in old juice boxes or Big M boxes to drink what’s left.

Researchers donned a caveman mask before trapping, banding and releasing wild crows at five different locations.

They then observed how the crows reacted when approached by someone wearing the caveman mask and compared it to the reaction prompted by a different mask or control mask.

While the control mask had no response, when wearing the caveman mask it prompted immediate angry squawking and flapping, not only from the birds previously captured but also from crows that had witnessed the initial trapping.

At one of the five sites, 20% of crows reacted angrily to the caveman face shortly after the trapping. After five years, the proportion of crows reacting to the caveman face was recorded at 60%, suggesting that word had spread among the flock that this was a dangerous face.

So remember people, be nice to your fellow feathered friends at school, they are watching you!, oh and btw a group on crows is called a murder of crows so you better be on your best behaviour!

I have included 16 pics of the most common birds we have here so feel free to play spotto and see if you can tick them off.