Western Australian Bird Notes Quarterly Newsletter of the Western Australian Branch of BirdLife Australia No. 171 September 2019 birds are in our nature Members in the field Western Australian Branch of EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 2019 BirdLife Australia Office: Peregrine House Chair: Mr Viv Read 167 Perry Lakes Drive, Floreat WA 6014 Vice Chair: Dr Mike Bamford Hours: Monday-Friday 9:30 am to 12.30 pm Telephone: (08) 9383 7749 Secretary: Lou Scampoli E-mail: [email protected] Treasurer: Beverly Winterton BirdLife WA web page: www.birdlife.org.au/wa Chair: Mr Viv Read Committee: Alasdair Bulloch, Max Goodwin, Mark Henryon, Andrew Hobbs, Jennifer Sumpton and one vacancy (due to BirdLife Western Australia is the WA Branch of the national resignation of Plaxy Barratt) organisation, BirdLife Australia. We are dedicated to creating a brighter future for Australian birds. General meetings: Held at the Bold Park Eco Centre, Perry Lakes Drive, Floreat, commencing 7:30 pm on the 4th Monday of the month (except December) – see ‘Coming events’ for details. Executive meetings: Held at Peregrine House on the 2nd Grey-crowned Babbler with slater at Emu Creek Monday of the month. Communicate any Station, by Ian Wallace matters for consideration to the Chair. Western Australian Bird Notes Red-backed Kingfisher in Margaret River. Photo by Print ISSN 1445-3983 Online ISSN 2206-8716 Christine Wilder Joint WABN Editors: Allan Burbidge Tel: (08) 9405 5109 (w) Tel/Fax: (08) 9306 1642 (h) Fax: (08) 9306 1641 (w) E-mail: [email protected] Suzanne Mather Tel: (08) 9389 6416 E-mail: [email protected] Production: Michelle Crow Printing and distribution: Daniels Printing Craftsmen Tel: (08) 9204 6800 danielspc.com.au Notes for Contributors The Editors request contributors to note: • WABN publishes material of interest to the WA Branch; Brown-headed Honeyeater at Lesmurdie. Photo by Black Grasswren at Bachsten camp, by John Baas • contributions should be written or typed with double Caroline Mynott (Excursion Reports, p51) spacing—a copy on disk or emailed would assist, especially if in MS Word as a document without styles; do not embed pictures or graphics in MS Word; • contributions to be sent direct to the Editors, either at the office or by email: Sue Mather: [email protected] C o n t e n t s Allan Burbidge: [email protected] Female Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush at • WABN uses BirdLife Australia recommended English names; 4. Exciting times for the WA 39. Notices. • except for Observations, contributions will be published Bittern project. Kennedy Range National Park, by Ian Wallace unless the contributor is informed to the contrary; 40. New members. 7. Book review. • Full Editorial Policy is in WABN 74:10-12; 41. Regional Groups. 11. Observations. • WABN is not peer reviewed. 46. Excursion reports. 15. BirdLife WA reports. 52. Observatory reports. 21. Across the Nullarbor: • Printing Deadlines (at BirdLife WA Office) 57. Coming events. news from National December 2019 issue: 1 November Office. 62. Crossword answers. March 2020 issue: 1 February 22. Obituaries. 62. Calendar of events. Pair of Red-tailed Black-cockatoo. Photo by David June 2020 issue: 1 May Budd September 2020 issue: 1 August 23. Members’ contributions. 38. Crossword. Front cover: Grey-headed Albatross at Jervoise Bay, by Nathan Piesse Page 2 Western Australian Bird Notes, No. 171 September 2019 Western Australian Bird Notes, No. 171 September 2019 Page 3 Exciting Times in the WA Bittern Project, ctd EXCITING TIMES IN THE WA BITTERN PROJECT The Song Meters provided over 800 hours of Byenup Lagoon S 6-7 0 recordings for the entire 2018 monitoring period. “Muir Highway” These needed to be prioritised for review for Aus- Tordit-Gurrup S BirdLife WA has been actively researching the Aus- from around Australia and New Zealand, including tralasian Bittern and Australian Little Bittern calls Forrestdale Lake 0 1 tralasian Bittern since 2007 with the Department of Matt Herring (PhD researcher from the BirdLife Aus- while minimising volunteer time! The prioritisation Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). tralia affiliated ‘Bitterns in Rice’ project) and Emma process included only reviewing recordings where Kulunilup Swamp 1 2 In 2019 BirdLife WA was excited to receive gener- Williams (currently working on Australasian Bitterns wind speeds were below 10 km/hr and process- Manaring Lake 0 0 ous funding from State Natural Resource Manage- with the Department of Conservation in New Zea- ing, at most, only every second day’s recording. Nine Mile Lake 0 0 ment which has enabled a WA Wetland Coordinator land having completed her PhD on this species). In most cases weekly recordings were reviewed. Thomson’s lake Recordings to be employed to focus on conservation of Aus- Both researchers gave excellent presentations on This considerably reduced the number of record- failed tralasian Bitten. Plaxy Barratt started in this role in their projects and were generous in sharing their ings to be processed and volunteer time. A review of WA Bird Sightings, Birdata and eBird May 2019 and will be based at the BirdLife Australia knowledge. One Song Meter has been left at Byenup Lagoon databases provided several records of Australian office in Bold Park, Floreat. The role will include to study calling of Australasian Bittern over an en- MONITORING IN SPRING-SUMMER 2018 Little Bittern during the period July 2018 until June considerable stakeholder engagement, particularly tire year at this site. This recorder has now been 2019 in Western Australia. These are summarised with landholders in the core bittern strongholds working at this site for two entire years, provid- Last spring our eight Song Meters (acoustic record- in Table 3. There were no records of Australasian around the Muir-Unicup wetlands, Manypeaks (east ing resources to analyse calling frequency over ing units) were busy again on the Swan Coastal Bittern in these datasets for 2018/19. of Albany), and Esperance, to protect and enhance all seasons. To date only the recordings from Plain wetlands and the Muir-Unicup wetlands (east wetland habitat on private lands. The role also incor- October to November have been prioritised and Table 3: Australian Little Bittern Records from of Manjimup). These recorders were bought with porates fieldwork (in conjunction with the DBCA) at reviewed. databases in 2018/19. key wetland sites for Australasian Bittern including funds from the Lotterywest grant (2010 to 2012), the WA Twitchathon and calendar sales. This year three volunteers reviewed all the record- the continuation of sound recorder (Song Meter) Number of ings. The review work took our volunteers a total deployment and habitat mapping. Monitoring and The wetlands monitored are shown in Table 1. Song Australian of approximately 36 hours to complete, which Date Location Observer/s spatial data will be used to inform on-ground activi- Meters were programmed to record for a one-hour Little was well less than half the time taken the previ- ties including fencing and revegetation, and recom- period starting at 2.5 hours prior to sunrise. This Bittern ous year. The time reduction was largely due to mendations for future management of wetlands. period was found to be the time that Australasian the improved prioritisation process. The current 12/10/2018 Lake 1 Phil Snow Bitterns call most frequently (Graff 2014) and also Since our last update in WABN September 2018, prioritisation system appears to be sustainable for 25/10/2018 Lake 1 Susan minimises dawn song and cow mooing which can BirdLife WA hosted the successful and collabora- volunteer time while also providing a good record Abbotts tive ‘Australasian Bittern and its Wetlands’ Sympo- drown out the calls of bitterns! of the numbers of Australasian Bittern present. 2/11/2018 Lake 1 Phil Snow sium on 21 November 2018, which was funded by Table 1: Wetlands Monitored in 2018 by Song SNRM. On the same day a recovery team planning BITTERN RECORDS FOR 2018/19 2/12/2018 Lake 1 Daniel Meters Mantle meeting was held and the first recovery team meet- The bittern records from 2018/19 are summarised ing was held in Manjimup in March 2019 (Figure 1). Swan 2/01/2019 Lake 1 Phil Snow Muir- in Table 2 and 3. Table 2 shows data from the The WA Australasian Bittern Recovery Team com- Coastal Timing Unicup Timing Song Meters. It was great to record an Austral- 6/1/2019 1 John Graff prises members from the Department of Biodiver- Plain Wetlands asian Bittern at Benger Swamp in 2018 as there et al. sity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), BirdLife Wetlands have been limited records from this wetland in 7/3/2019 Lake 1 Wynton Australia, South West Catchment Council and South Benger Aug-Nov Byenup All year recent years. The data from the three southern Maddeford Coast NRM and is co-chaired by Sarah Comer Swamp Lagoon Muir-Unicup wetlands were pooled as one com- & Chris (DBCA) and Vicki Stokes (BA). The team will drive Big Swamp Sep-Oct Kulunilup Oct-Dec plex unit in Table 2 as the Song Meters at each Cooper the implementation of recovery actions such as con- Swamp survey site recorded the same birds across this 26/05/2019 Lily Creek 1 Luke tinued monitoring and research, community educa- broad wetland complex. Lagoon Paterson tion and prioritisation of bittern habitat for protection Cleveland Aug-Sep ‘Muir Oct-Dec Road Highway” (north and management. Table 2: Bittern Records from BirdLife WA vol- Swamp unteer surveys in 2018 end), Note: This table only reports the first record for each month BITTERNS AT THE AUSTRALASIAN Forrestdale Sep-Oct Tordit- Oct-Dec Australian within a wetland. Many other observers have noted hearing ORNITHOLOGICAL CONFERENCE 2019 Lake Gurrup Australasian Little Bit- or seeing already reported Australian Little Bittern but these Thomson’s Sep-Nov Wetland Bittern Re- tern Re- have not been included.