Birdies unwelcome at Australian golf club

The note, left at a suburban Sydney golf club, was terse but to the point. "Warning: you bastards kill one bird and we will destroy all your greens at our leisure. We will be watching and waiting."

What prompted it was Warringah Golf Club's decision to hire a marksman to cull native wood ducks that have been ripping up its greens. Some local residents were unhappy, but the club management did not expect the retaliation that took place at the weekend.

After news of the cull appeared in the local newspaper, intruders crept in overnight and dug up the greens. The menacing note, scrawled on a piece of cardboard, was planted in the earth. A golf professional working in the club's pro shop received a threatening phone call.



Warringah had obtained a three-month licence to hunt the ducks. "The ducks dig up the greens as they forage for food," the club's general manager, Brian Leggett, told The Sydney Morning Herald. "Then the process moves on and comes out the other end, and you finish up with faeces all over the green. You have these little piles everywhere on the green."

Less radical measures had been tried, including placing cardboard cut-outs of cats and rubber snakes around the course, but without success. "The ducks just get used to them and come back," Mr Leggett said.

The incident is being investigated by the police. Four greens were extensively damaged, and three others had lumps of turf dug up with a spade.