Welcome to the Wildside’
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Fenner School of Environment and Society Welcome to the December 2016 - Issue 20 Wildside Greetings from the Editor (Mason Crane) G’day all and welcome to six months. The wet light surveys were com- the twentieth issue of Inside this issue: winter caused considera- pleted for the Adjungbilly ‘Welcome to the Wildside’. ble access issues, which creek study, which turned This newsletter is pro- saw the SWS slopes and up some more Booroolong duced by David Lin- Box-Gum Study birds and 2 Box-Gum Stewardship frogs and an antechinus reptiles denmayer’s research team at the Fenner School of bird surveys strung out (marsupial mouse). Critter file: Grey-headed 2 Environment and Society, over any extended period. Along with field work the flying-fox The Australian National The wet conditions team has be busy com- New Fieldies join the team 3 University. It is our aim to though, made it ideal for municating results through ensure that all of our re- finding blindsnakes, as numerous field days. A message from the Murray 4 search partners, such as they come closer to the yourselves, are up to date surface and become more Merry Christmas and with our work. detectable. New Happy New Year to all. An epic field season is now blindsnake species were over, with the team out recorded in both studies. surveying birds and reptiles A new round of bird, almost every day of the last reptile and frog, and spot- Dan talking reptiles at LLS training day at Coleambally SW Slopes Reptiles (Mason Crane) Through August and September we find pink-tail worm-lizards at a tree- completed around 200 reptile surveys planting site near Howlong. Special points of on and near farms from Howlong to interest: Junee. Every year there are new Our Travelling Stock Reserves sites Interesting finds in also proved to be good hunting the Box-Gum stew- surprises, interesting records and also ardship study findings that reaffirm our current think- grounds for lace monitors, again showing the importance of these sites Grey-headed Flying- ing. foxes continue to for critters that rely on large oldgrowth pop up around the This year it was great to find our first trees. SW slpoes woodland blindsnakes in the study, one Meet our new field staff based in using a treeplanting near Tarcutta and Gundagai and Cow- another in a remnant near Walla Walla. ra. It was also a big year for geckos and Dwyer’s snakes. We also continue to Lace monitor on a travelling stock reserve near Gundagai Pa ge 2 Welcome to the Wildside December 2016 - I ssue 20 Box-Gum Stewardship study birds and reptiles( Mason Crane) In contrast to our last lot of surveys during the very -lizards. It will be interesting to see with further dry Autumn, an extremely wet winter posed some real analyses how these sites are performing compared access issues for us. However, our persistence paid off to the business as usual sites. with a number of interesting finds across the study. My highlight was a tiger snake near Scarlet honeyeaters turned up at Gunning and Cassilis, Queanbeyan. we had a further range extension of the Carpentaria snake at Yetman and recorded three-pronged blindsnake for the first time for the study near Stockinbingal. Above: Three- pronged blindsnake, We continue to find many threatened and rare species differentiated by distinct lobes either- in the stewardship sites such as pink-tailed worm side of the nose. Left: Tiger snake Critter File: Grey-headed Flying-fox (Clare Crane) Over the last few years we have considered vulnerable to extinc- fur and are then left in maternal started to pick up Grey-headed tion. They more commonly occur camps whilst the mother feeds at Flying-foxes (GHFF) in our along the east coast of Australia, night, up to 20 km away. On her spotlight survey in the SW slopes. but seem to be increasingly com- return she nurses the pup for about These bats are different to the mon west of the divide, often 12 weeks until it is independent and Little Red Flying-fox (LRFF) we making use of urban areas for able to forage for itself. usually see, both in size and col- food and shelter Below: a new Grey-head Flying-fox camp in Gundagai our. In fact GHFF is one of the Flying foxes feed on largest megabats in the world nectar, pollen and fruits, with a wingspan up to 1 metre. and are important native As the name suggests, GHFF has seed dispersers and plant a grey head and belly with an or- pollinators as they travel ange/brown neck ring, compared between sites. Each year in to the smaller LRFF which can October/November also have a grey head but its body females usually give birth fur and wings have a distinctly to a single pup which is reddish/brown tinge. carried on her belly as she GHFF are protected nationally flies. At 4-5 weeks old the and in NSW as they are pups have grown all their Welcome to the Wildside December 2016 - I ssue 20 Pa ge 3 New Fieldies join the crew in Gundagai and Cowra (Mason Crane) Sadly after 7 years Sachiko Okada has left the job are his increased exposure to the weird and wonder- team to take a position in Tokyo, moving back to ful happenings of nature and being able to learn from the home land. To fill the huge void we have em- his colleagues and the landholders he works alongside. ployed two new field ecologists, David Smith and Clare Crane Clare Crane (no relation) to be based in Gundagai and Cowra. These guys will be a great asset to the team bringing new skills and experience, with loads of enthusiasm. Dave Smith Dave joined the team as a Research Of- ficer in 2016; relocating to Cowra in Cen- tral Western NSW to con- Clare is from a UK farming family and has worked in centrate his various sectors on natural resource management and efforts on the Environmental Stewardship Pro- ecology for over 17 years. She first came to Australia in gram and Grazing Study. He has a keen interest in 2005 where she volunteered with Parks Victoria for a birds and their ecology which lead him to under- year. During this time she worked on monitoring pro- take a Graduate Diploma of Ornithology through jects across the Parks Victoria estate targeting feral ani- Charles Sturt University after completing his un- mals, threatened and weed species. She also volunteered dergraduate degree in Environmental Manage- on projects with the Australasian Bat Society and Aus- ment and Science. tralian Platypus Conservancy. In 2008 Clare returned to Throughout his studies, Dave honed his field work in Australia as a consultant zoologist surveying skills by volunteering with several conservation fauna in Victoria, NSW, central Queensland and South projects all around Australia, but particularly in Australia. the arid interior. He is currently completing his Clare recently joined the team as a research officer to honours degree; his research focusing on deter- assist with field monitoring of bird, reptile, mammal mining the effectiveness of sound recorders for species and vegetation assessments for long-term re- surveying birds. Dave’s favourite aspects of the search projects across south-eastern Australia. Pa ge 4 A message from the Murray (Thea O’Loughlin) Like many of the other studies in 2016, the Murray Toad (b) under moni- (b) Biodiversity Monitoring Program was hamstrung by toring substrates. The wet weather. Eventually, and with some serious toad was found hop- efforts in gumboots, all but two sites were surveyed ping about under tin for reptiles. A Hooded Scalyfoot (a) was recorded near Urana Lake by Sachiko under a tile near Moulamein, a rare rec- Reserve. ord for the study as this cryptic species is not In the Victorian sites, spotlighting was also under- usually found during our taken. During the nocturnal surveys it was reassur- daytime surveys. Good ing to record many of the ‘usual customers’. Sites numbers of frogs were near Barnawartha proved to be the busiest with found due to the wet Tawny Frogmouth, Ringtail Possum, Brushtail conditions, and the team Possum (with bub), Eastern Grey Kangaroos and a had their first record of (a) Wombat all recorded within the space of an hour! a Common Spadefoot Planned field surveys for the Further Information next 6months For any further information or general inquiries, please phone us or drop us an email. February– March -Vegetation surveys Grazing Mason Crane Study Phone: 0427770594 E-mail: [email protected] February - April - Setting up new connectivity study. Damian Michael Phone: 0427770595 June—SW slopes and Nanangroe Study spotlight- E-mail: [email protected] ing Daniel Florance Phone: 0400682789 E-mail: [email protected] Clare Crane Phone: 0417451834 E-mail: [email protected] Thanks to Thea O’Loughlin Murray Local Land Services Phone: 0427777602 Riverina Local Land Services E-mail: [email protected] The Australian Government’s Dave Smith Environmental Stewardship Program Phone: 0428094316 E-mail: [email protected] .