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Dromaius News for Friends of Birdlife Australia ISSUE 3 | JULY 2014 DROMAIUS NEWS FOR FRIENDS OF BIRDLIFE AUSTRALIA Thinking big, making a difference 2014 BirdLife BirdLife Australia is thinking big with an ambitious strategy to Australia Student scale up our Important Birds & Biodiversity (IBA) program. The Research Awards program uses good research and passionate people working together to provide effective protection for our most threatened BirdLife Australia was species. overwhelmed by the extraordinary number of IBAs are special places recognised internationally as important to high-quality applications and the survival of birds. Australia’s 314 IBAs cover 44 million hectares, was, unfortunately, not able to but more than half of this area has no formal conservation fund them all. Congratulations protection — despite its value to threatened species. to those students who were successful in their application The Murray–Darling Basin Conservation Statement, released for the 2014 BirdLife Australia exclusively at a supporter event in late May, highlighted the Student Research Awards. importance of our IBA program. By monitoring and managing the 13 IBAs in the Murray–Darling Basin as a network, we help Professor Allen Keast to improve the effectiveness of environmental water flows. Research Award — Awarded Importantly, wetland birds will always have somewhere to go — to Grace Hodder (PhD), even during a drought. University of Adelaide, for her research project ‘The Ecology Some species in the Basin are at a tipping point. The loss of water of the Diamond Firetail from the wetlands has resulted in declines of the Australasian Stagonopleura guttata in the Bittern (50 per cent) and Australian Painted Snipe (90 per cent). Mount Lofty Ranges, South However, by demonstrating that those birds are in trouble, BirdLife Australia’. Australia has ensured they are now listed as Endangered. We are now working with the Rice Growers Association of Australia to Emu—Austral Ornithology identify and protect key habitat for Bitterns. Research Award — Awarded to Amy Slender (PhD), Australia’s IBAs are usually concentrated in heavily cleared and Flinders University, for her fragmented land, developed coastline and islands. Water flows research project ‘Assessing and major port or mining projects are not the only threats to gene flow between and across IBAs — the scale of smaller developments can be a ‘death by a two diverging populations From top, photos by Dan Weller and thousand cuts’. of the threatened Thick- Dean Ingwersen billed Grasswren Amytornis Empowering our volunteer groups to research and protect modestus in the arid zone’. vulnerable habitat is cost-effective. Long-term community- collected data recently prevented the over-development of Stuart Leslie Bird Research Awards wetlands at Port Fairy, a nationally important habitat for Latham’s Thanks to the generous and ongoing support of the Stuart Leslie Snipe (the developer was trying to say the birds weren’t even Foundation, in 2014 more than $50,000 was awarded to 29 there!). students from universities across Australia. To see the full list of students funded go to: www.birdlife.org.au/media/2014-birdlife- The IBA program has so far done great work on a modest budget. australia-student-research-awards-announced. Our community groups tell us they want BirdLife Australia to do more — much more. We are thinking big. With your help, we will empower and equip our volunteer community groups to adopt 2014 Ornithology Awards announced and protect all 314 IBAs in Australia — that is a formidable force for nature and the future of our most threatened and endangered BirdLife Australia is pleased to announce that Richard Loyn is birds. the worthy recipient of the 2014 D.L. Serventy Medal; the highest award offered to professional ornithologists by BirdLife Australia. If you’d like to learn more about our programs and the work we do, Lloyd Nielsen has been awarded the 2014 J.N. Hobbs Memorial please call me directly on 0477 007 522. Medal for outstanding contributions to Australasian ornithology by an amateur ornithologist. Paul Sullivan I Chief Executive Richard established the Western Port Waterbird Survey with the Bird Observers Club, which has endured and developed into Australia’s longest-running waterbird survey. He is a firm believer that research must be shared, and he has published the findings of his research in 170 peer-reviewed papers and reports. Lloyd has published scores of papers on birds, the first when he was just 18 years old. He has a knack of ‘making things plain’ and is also an accomplished bird artist and photographer, with some of his artworks gracing the walls of Parliament House in Canberra. JULY 2014 1 Conquering the impossible: eight years of recovering the Hooded Plover Grainne Maguire When I first started working at BirdLife Australia on the ‘Beach- nesting Birds’ project I felt we would be attempting to conquer the impossible. Promoting coexistence between recreationists and beach-nesting birds seemed a pipedream, particularly with birds that nest on the beach or dunes, whose camouflaged eggs are directly underfoot. It seemed terrifying to think that we had to (a) find volunteers who would monitor the birds and find these well-camouflaged nests; (b) find people to protect the nests with signage and fencing (which aren’t easy to carry for miles along a beach); and (c) get the beach-using public to care about the birds and to alter the way they have been using beaches for decades. The entire suite of threats facing Hooded Plovers seemed overwhelming. In spring and summer there are swimmers, walkers, families, surfers, dog walkers, people fishing. These people might inadvertently step on well-camouflaged nests or newly hatched chicks. Dogs might chase and kill the chicks over their five flightless weeks before fledging. Then there is disturbance, the hidden killer! The cryptic nature of the Hooded Plovers means that parents will distance themselves from their nests and chicks to let camouflage protect their location — a strategy that has evolved from generations of exposure to native predators. In a current beach environment, people and dogs are perceived as predators — the cumulative effect of one person spending too long near a nest or multiple people/dogs passing by and disturbing the birds can result in eggs baking on the sand or chicks hiding and dying of exposure. Other obvious threats to eggs and chicks include foxes, feral cats, Silver Gulls, ravens and birds of prey. Less-obvious threats include horses being ridden on the beach, vehicle use, entanglement in disused fishing line and fibres from commercial fishing nets, and Photos by Glenn Ehmke even camels, sheep or feral pigs on beaches. Increased litter on beaches contributes to elevated population numbers of ravens Note: The Beach-nesting Birds is a core project, implementing BirdLife and gulls. Weeds in the dune system lead to loss of nesting Australia’s conservation strategy and program. It is currently funded through habitat and altered dune structures, which means the birds feel Hugh D. T. Williamson Foundation, the Victorian Environment Protection an even greater ‘coastal squeeze’, with threats coming from land Program, Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges NRM Board, the Department of and sea. Environment, Water and Natural Resources SA and generous donations. So where do we start? How do we turn this around? Is the problem too big? No way! It has been an eight-year journey so far, with the foundations Rex’s Trek — saving Australia’s birds one for much of the monitoring extending back into the early 1980s. step at a time Eight years of generating volunteer action and providing the tools and knowledge for land managers and coastal communities to Renowned outback adventurer and tour operator, Rex Ellis will improve the plight of these birds. And we have done it! attempt to become the first person to walk across all of South Australia’s eight largest dry lake beds to raise funds for eight It takes a long time to change attitudes towards beaches when threatened bird species on behalf of BirdLife Australia. Over these have been perceived only as places of recreation for so the next 12 months Rex will tackle the foreboding treks in a test long, but now people finally expect wildlife to be present — they of physical and mental endurance that will challenge even this are happy to adapt their behaviour and share the beach with legendary bushman. Each of the walks will be in aid of a particular the birds, coexisting side by side. The message is slowly filtering Australian bird species that needs a helping hand. Many of the across communities and to visitors and tourists, and awareness lakes have islands that have never been visited by birdwatchers is growing. Volunteers get hooked by the tenacity of these little before. Rex and his team will complete bird surveys to catalogue birds that battle against the odds, and this gives them equal the remarkable species that manage to survive in this harshest tenacity to do the same. One person inspires the next, and so on, of environments — birds that are as tough and resilient as Rex and the program has become extremely resilient and adaptive. himself! Rex will be accompanied by Brenton Hicks, who has Every day we learn something new — extensive trekking experience, and Mark Duncan, a professional we build our network and don’t reinvent the wheel, but share our photographer who will document the trek. experiences and become a well-oiled machine. The team has already completed treks across Lake Callabonna Hooded Plovers have ceased their rapid spiral of decline. We (in aid of the Southern Cassowary) and Lake Frome (Swift are now adding twice as many fledglings to the population Parrot). Still to come are treks across Lakes Torrens (Carnaby’s each season. We are even seeing new birds set up territories on Black-Cockatoo), Gairdner (Western Ground Parrot), Everard beaches where there have been no Hooded Plovers for 10–15 (Regent Honeyeater), Blanche (Orange-bellied Parrot), Gregory years.
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