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The Wildside December 2014 - I Ssue 16

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Fenner School of Environment and Society Welcome to the December 2014 - Issue 16 Wildside Greetings from the Editor (Mason Crane) G’day all and welcome to to Marysville Vic and We are continuing to build Inside this issue: the sixteenth issue of from Jervis Bay to Moul- on our massive long term ‘Welcome to the mein NSW. After a big data sets, giving us great op- Wildside’. This newslet- year working on the Box portunities to understand News from the Greater Mur- 2 ter is produced by David Gum Stewardship study how our wildlife is changing ray biodiversity study Lindenmayer’s research and the Murray Biodiver- over time. With the Local Keeping up communications 2 team at the Fenner sity study, our focus in Land Services NSW and School of Environment 2015 will turn to the SW Catchment Management and Society, part of the Slopes Restoration Pro- Authorities Victoria we are 2014 Nanangroe bird sur- 3 ject, the Woodland Graz- looking for new ways to use veys Australian National Uni- versity. It is our aim to ing study and Nanangroe our existing data and setting Stewardship and Grazing 3 ensure that all our re- Plantation Study. up new studies to answer Study News questions that will inform search partners, such as Budget cuts are starting to natural resource manage- Staff Profile: 4 yourselves, are up to date hit the group with 5 staff Damian Michael ment. with our work. from our team in Canber- Another six months are ra losing their jobs. While To all our partners thanks gone and the team has field staff are safe at this for you support and have a certainly covered some stage, things are uncertain. great Christmas and New ground, from Texas Qld Year. Critter File: Brown-blazed Wedgesnout (Daniel Florance) In exciting news we NSW. This species is of animals, particularly Special points of found a species of skink more commonly associ- reptiles. interest: not previously detected ated with the semi-arid Bourke Parrot sight- in the Stewardship areas of central NSW. ed at Urana study. The Brown- This individual was New 2015 calendar blazed Wedgesnout found under rock in the and frog booklet Ctenotus (Ctenotus allot- box gum community and For most birds pine ropis) was found during appears at this stage to plantations do not an active reptile search be a possible slight east- increase connectivi- ty. of one of our grazing ern range extension to exclusion monitoring its south-east distribu- New reptile for stew- ardship study. sites (which is an addi- tion. Rocks, and particu- tional study incorporated larly rocky outcrops, into the Stewardship form important wildlife study) near Grenfell, habitat for many species Pa ge 2 Welcome to the Wildside December 2014 - I ssue 16 News from the Greater Murray on the Biodiversity Monitoring Program (Damian Michael) This year marks the fifth round of snakes. When it feels threatened, it surveys across the Murray catch- raises its body of the ground in a ment, and the fourth round of mock strike. surveys in the North East and *A new record of the Eastern Goulburn Broken catchments. To Ctenotus Ctenotus orientalis (c) was stretch the budget, we will not be recorded north of Jerilderie. This surveying in 2015. Instead, we will small skink with a series of spots resume surveys in June 2016. Da- (a) and stripes along its back constructs ta is being entered and analysis burrows beneath saltbush shrubs. will be done in 2015, after which, *A hooded scaly-foot Pygopus we will hold a series of BBQ schraderi (b), which is a legless liz- presentation nights near Mou- ard, was found south of Jerilderie lamein and Thule – so hopefully representing a significant range we can catch up some time next extension. This species is active at year. night and has dark patterns on its As always, we have some interest- head that resemble young brown (c) ing records to share. *A single Bourke’s Parrot (a) was recorded near Lake Urana. There are also historical records of this *A new record of a squirrel glider small pinkish parrot just north of was recorded in a conservation re- Lake Urana, so those living out serve near Barnawartha. This indi- that way should keep an eye out vidual was recorded feeding in a for this guy. (b) small stand of silver wattles. Keeping up communications (Mason Crane) Our team is committed to mak- lands” booklet and Paddock ing sure that our research find- Trees YouTube clip. ings, interesting sightings and observations or any other rele- Within the next year vant information that we come the team will also be across is accessible to the releasing a new book broader community. So this summarising our year, along with the many sci- woodlands work entific papers, we have pro- over the decade. duced the “2015 Calendar”, we If you are after any have also produced the “Frogs information please of the Box Gum Grassy Wood- give us a call. Welcome to the Wildside December 2014 - I ssue 16 Pa ge 3 2014 Nanangroe bird surveys (Sachiko Okada) We have conducted spring bird the female’s short sharp (choo- tation acts as a barrier restricting surveys at 131 sites for choo) call immediately following movement. Our colleague Alessio Nanangroe Natural Experiment the male’s whip call. This could Mortelliti has put together a great Study in early November. This be because male Whipbirds are YouTube clip ‘Pine Fiction’ show- was the 12th bird surveys since known to disperse much larger ing this https:// the establishment of the study. distances than females. It seems www.youtube.com/watch? In the latest round of surveys it that the increased canopy cover v=lkZlDdm085g seems there has been an in- of pines and blackberries are creased number of the Golden providing habitat and facilitate Thank you for your participation Whistler, the European Gold- males to disperse further west, in the study. Because of your co- finch and the Blackbird on the out of the taller wet forest higher operation we have been able to sites within pine plantations. The up the mountains. find new insights from our long- most remarkable finding during term monitoring! the 2014 surveys was the obser- The team has recently published a vation of Eastern Whipbirds (a) paper examining how plantations at East Bungongo and Cotway affect the movement of 16 of the Plantations. Eastern Whipbirds most common birds in the study were first recorded for this study (not including eastern whipbird) in 2012 but were not detected The results show for most species again in 2013. It seems that only pine plantations have no impact males have come into the study on movement, but for some such area so far, as we are yet to hear as Brown Treecreepers the plan- (a) Stewardship and Grazing Study News (Daniel Florance) We’ve successfully finished sites in the Cowra region and another year of flora and fauna further detections of the NSW surveys on Stewardship sites. endangered zigzag gecko in far This year we visited 70% of all north NSW sites (a). sites across the study for vege- We aim to look at the results of (b) tation, bird and reptile surveys. recent fauna surveys in more Possibly the most interesting detail shortly to assess whether the different concerns and man- animal found this year during there are detectable effects of agement issues faced by steward- spring wildlife surveys was a Stewardship management on ship land managers in the north- new skink for the study wildlife yet. Survey results will ern region. Feedback from land- (discussed in the critter file). be posted out to landholders in holders is welcomed as it can Also exciting was the detection the New Year. open our eyes to the issues you as of good numbers of the vulner- managers face on the ground. We able pink-tailed worm lizard on On our recent spring trip to hope that our monitoring data and QLD/northern NSW Steward- your input and knowledge will ship properties we caught up help to improve not just the cur- with some of the landholders rent Stewardship program but al- involved in the northern section so future programs. We thank of the program for a field day Geoff for his hospitality in host- and BBQ (b). The afternoon was ing the BBQ and the attending well attended given the large landholders for their time and in- distances people had to travel. It put on this recent trip. (a) gave us a chance to hear some of Pa ge 4 Staff Profile: Damian Michael The idea of the staff profile is bourne and Mr Geelong! After have been managing the moni- so you can get to know some high school I moved to Mel- toring program in the Greater of the many people involved bourne to teach gymnastics and Murray catchment, where I en- in our research team. study Chemistry before deciding joy working with different land- I was born in England and mi- this was not the career I wanted, holders. I am currently based in grated to Australia with my fam- so I spent a year picking grapes in Albury with my wife and two ily in 1981 where I spent my Robinvale, where I met my now daughters. youth growing up in Geelong. wife. In 1996, we both moved to In 1990, at age 15, I was granted Albury to study Environmental a 6 month scholarship to train Science. I went on to study grass- as a gymnast at the Australian land fauna for my Honours year Institute of Sport in Canberra.
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