"Terryc" wrote in message
Farm1 wrote:

Thanks for the generous offer Om. Are you in Australia? If not
then
I must sadly decline due to quarantine concerns.

Look at some of the gourds offered by Eden Seeds.
http://www.edenseeds.com.au
alphabetical, then G for gourds. (search for gourds didn't work)

Thanks for that. Found'em.

you might need to hand pollinate as well (like pumpkins).

Will keep that in mind.

However, I'm sure
that the problem isn't breeding, we have lots odfine leaved shrubs
and
bushes and each year we have babies. It's just that the sodding
Currawongs are such efficient and effective killers.

Hmm, if you have stuff like cotoneaster, pycantha, etc locally, do
all
you can to get rid of them. It is believed these are part of the
reason,
currowangs overwinter on these and thus survive in greater numbers
for
spring.

The sodding things live in the huge pinewind breaks around the
machinery shed and shearing shed and the perimeters of the paddocks
out from our house. They have lots of road kill to keep them going
all year round. We must have at least 100 round here - probably more.
At least they aren't the only birds we have. We saw a stunning little
kingfisher today. It wasn't an Azure kingfisher and I haven't been
able to find it in the 2 bird books I've looked at so far but it was
gorgeous - rarer than some of the other birds we have though.

You also might like to observer if the small leaved stuff is
actually
protecting the small birds

They do protect them, thankfully. Too shrubby and twiggy and lots of
it but the currawongs sit on the big trees and watch like proverbial
hawks. The currawongs have now become very cautious. Walking out of
the house with a gun makes then take off quick smart but we can't be
here to protect the little birds all the time and they need to come
out to feed at times when we aren't around.