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YELLOW THROAT The newsletter of BirdLife Tasmania a branch of BirdLife Australia Number 69, May 2013 Bob Brown at General Meeting Greg Irons to speak in July Life Sciences Building, University of Greg became the director of the Bonorong Wildlife Tasmania, Thursday, 9 May, 8.00 p.m. Sanctuary at just 25 years of age, and has so far enlisted more than 800 volunteers. The rescue service runs 24 Dr Bob Brown, founder and former leader of the Greens hours a day, seven days a week, and in the last 12 months Party, former senator for Tasmania, and current director of has taken over 5000 calls. As a private sanctuary that cares the Australian chapter of Sea Shepherd, will be the speaker for orphaned and injured wildlife, Bonorong depends on at the May General Meeting. Dr Brown will be speaking donations and visitor entries. about the impact that birds have had in his life. Greg is also a familiar face in the children’s ward of the Royal Hobart Hospital, visiting with baby wombats and Meeting venue: Life Sciences Lecture Theatre 1, Life blue-tongue lizards to brighten sick children’s days and Sciences Building, University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay. help spread his conservation message. Greg’s deep under- Access and parking are from College Road or from the standing of Tasmania’s wildlife, and his passion for parking area outside the University Centre via the conservation values, is helping preserve the state’s pedestrian bridge over Churchill Avenue. precious environment. Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary BYO Barbecue for BirdLife Tasmania, 18 May Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary is hosting a BYO barbecue for BirdLife Tasmania members on Saturday 18 May at 5.00 p.m. The sanctuary closes at 5, so we will be the only people inside the sanctuary. Greg Irons, the Director, will provide members with a behind-the-scenes guided tour. This is a wonderful chance to see the remarkable efforts that are made to conserve and rehabilitate native Tasmanian wildlife — including many birds. BirdLife Tasmania recently made a donation to Bonorong to assist their efforts to rescue and rehabilitate native birds, so please come along to show your support. Bring your sausages, steak or veggie burgers, and something to drink, and enjoy a social evening with fellow members. BirdLife Tasmania will provide the bread and condiments. Don’t forget to bring warm clothes: it can get quite chilly in the sanctuary at night! Please RSVP to Sue Drake by Friday, 3 May, to help with catering and staff organisation at Bonorong. Greg’s talk in July will focus on the work that Bonorong Remember this date. It will be a wonderful chance to get does, including its 24-hour wildlife rescue service, which to know more about one of our partners in preservation of is the only one in Tasmania. He will also talk about what Tasmania’s wildlife, and to learn more about how we can we can all do to help native birds and animals survive in help their cause. Tasmania. 1 The workshops and education surrounding the counts Shorebird conservation efforts highlight the simple but important message of how to in north-west Tasmania enjoy the beaches without affecting the shorebirds’ natural habitat and nesting behaviours. Dionna Newton, Cradle Coast NRM The main message we try to deliver is to always walk on Twice a year, around 100 volunteers take to their local the wet sand to protect beach-nesting birds, and we en- beaches to perform a shorebird count covering all 45 courage volunteers to share this message with friends and beaches and 130 kilometres of coastline between Stanley family so that they, too, can help these birds to survive. and Narawntapu National Park. The north-west coast is In addition to the twice-yearly monitoring, Cradle Coast dotted with towns and cities and the beautiful scenery NRM has been delivering shorebird education in primary attracts many people, often with dogs, horses, trail bikes schools across the region. This will train the next gener- and vehicles. ation of beach-goers to walk on the wet sand and protect The count focuses on four resident shorebirds — the beach-nesting birds. Red-capped Plover, Hooded Plover, Pied Oystercatcher and Sooty Oystercatcher — but it also notes the number of Masked Lapwings, Fairy Terns and Little Terns, plus keeping a casual eye out for other residents such as the White-bellied Sea Eagles. Pests such as feral cats and weeds are taking their toll, and erosion and king tides have also been known to remove shorebird nests. Since the first count in March 2010, the Cradle Coast NRM project has grown to involve close to 100 volunteers from diverse backgrounds and age-groups. These volun- teers have recently completed the seventh count. In its time of operation, the program has helped raise the community’s awareness of the resident shorebirds: the ultimate aims are to improve their protection, collect data on population numbers and promote conservation. Shorebird monitoring participants, Cradle Coast. The program is significant in achieving the long-term goals of counting numbers of resident shorebirds and set- Together with BirdLife Tasmania and BirdLife Australia, ting a benchmark to guide shorebird protection activities. we would like to extend a wholehearted thankyou to all All collated data is provided to BirdLife Tasmania and the our volunteers who have devoted their valuable time to Natural Values Atlas for inclusion in data sets. these counts. Hazel Britton, the Project Coordinator, deserves a special mention; she is integral to the success of this project. Stay tuned for updates on the program. Forthcoming information will include details of this year’s count and overall trend numbers of shorebirds across the 120 kilometres of coastline. All data collected can be viewed on Cradle Coast NRM’s website: www.cradlecoastnrm.com. Go to the ‘Our Work’ tab and then select ‘Community’. Northern view — from scarce to rare Ralph Cooper Banded Stilt have been arriving at the Cape Portland lagoons — presumably they form part of the large flock reported on Flinders Island. There were 54 on 28 February 2013, which number rose to 235 on 27 March. Dionna Newton (left) and Hazel Britton (right) on the Cradle Coast An Oriental Plover recorded on the coastal strip at Cape Portland on 8 February 2013 had moulted into spectacular Participants count at beaches close to where they live so breeding plumage by 26 March. that their involvement is not too time consuming. Tamar Wetlands has had its share of surprises with a To make sure that participants had all they needed to White-winged Black Tern in November 2012, and a contribute to the on-site counting, shorebird awareness and solitary Black-winged Stilt on 18 April 2012. A Freckled identification workshops were held in Devonport and Duck first recorded on 25 March 2013 was still present on Burnie in the lead-up to the first monitoring period. 8 April 2013. Two more vagrants turned up at the Tamar Continual ongoing mentoring has been delivered by our Wetlands on 16 April — a pair of Pink-eared Duck, which lead volunteers; these all have extensive knowledge and were easily visible from the boardwalk. experience in shorebird identification, and are assigned to [See Don Knowler’s Sunday Tasmanian column of 21 April for different count sites. A lead volunteer is present at every more about four Freckled Ducks that were spotted on Gould’s count to ensure accuracy and validity of results reported. Lagoon; also Alan Fletcher’s blog: tassiebirds.blogspot.com.au.] 2 Mavis Burgess Stung!: On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of Liz Jones the Ocean Birding has lost a valued long-time supporter: Mrs Mavis By Lisa-ann Gershwin Burgess passed away on King Island, Bass Strait, on 16 Our oceans are becoming increasingly inhospitable to life: March 2013 after a two-year illness. A nursing sister, growing toxicity and rising temperatures coupled with originally from Victoria, Mavis settled on the Island and overfishing have led populations of many marine species worked tirelessly throughout her life in numerous official to the brink of collapse. And yet there is one creature that posts and community activities, dispensing optimism and is thriving in this seasick environment: the beautiful, wonderful humour, a long-term and respected member of dangerous, and now incredibly numerous jellyfish. As the King Island community. Her contributions to birding foremost jellyfish expert, Lisa-ann Gershwin, describes in were numerous and varied. Over many years Mavis Stung!, the jellyfish population bloom is highly indicative regularly sent detailed sightings and written reports south of the tragic state of the world’s ocean waters, while also to the Birds Tas (sic) database and to Yellow Throat, revealing these remarkable creatures’ incredible tenacity. proving to be a truly valuable pair of eyes in a remote, Lisa will speak at the Tasmanian Field Naturalists significant site. She played an active role in Dr Clive meeting on 4 July. Her seminar will draw from aspects of Minton’s regular birding visits to the island. And as an Stung! and Tasmanian ecosystems, and she will discuss avid and accomplished photographer, Mavis generously some of the dozens of new species being found in shared her appealing and often unique wader, bush bird Tasmanian waters. Lisa is a lively and colourful writer and and raptor images far and wide in personally produced speaker, and her seminar and book will appeal to general cards and calendars for friends, tourists and island audiences, particularly those of us interested in how we charities. Two of her images that particularly delighted her humans are impacting the oceans, and, in turn, how those were a magnificent pair of sea eagles that she photo- impacts are affecting us.

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