The Powerful Project

December 2020

2020 Season Round Up A hearty hello to all as we run down the slope to the Our 2020 breeding season has been interesting end of 2020. This year has been a year of challenges, overall this season. Whilst usually we see nests fail in heartbreak, loss and healing, but also reinforcement of the snap colds of early July, our early breeding event the goodness in people and the strength of community meant that we lost chicks this season, rather than in . Our fire affected communities are still just . This was distressing for owl parents who recovering, rebuilding and are very much in our were observed attending nests in highly agitated thoughts as Summer ramps up. In the beating states as per previous failures, and also sad for our heart of the Project, our citizen scientists, citizen scientists. However, it was interesting to have sweated and been tick-bitten, cried a great deal document trying a second breed within the but also laughed with giddy delight at the antics of our season after an early failure, something we haven’t Sydney Basin Powerful Owls in 2020. Amongst all the recorded in the project previously. tribulations of COVID, flood and bushfires our PO In three locations we saw Sulphur-crested Project owly empire has selflessly continued to survey take over owl nesting hollows within one day of a our nocturnal . Hats off to you POP family. Your failed breeding. In one of our Lane Cove territories efforts in conjunction with financial support from our we found the body of a very young chick that had project partner Lane Cove Council have paid off in been pulled from the nest and dropped 10m from the these ways: hollow entrance, confirming Cockies are still major - the identification of more new breeding territories competitors for tree hollows in the urban space. Our this season than we have recorded in the last five Centennial Park owls that received such a lot of years, bringing the tally of known territories from media coverage this season 214 in 2019 to 239 in 2020 (https://www.centennialparklands.com.au/stories/2 018/get-to-know-the-baby-powerful-owl-in-the- - the opportunity to provide 57 different advocacy parklands) were also plagued by cockies. Fantastic actions to temper vegetation management, photos collected by Francisco Martins documented clearing, building and burning in New South cockies entering the hollow whilst both Mrs PO and Wales and to protect 45 different chicks were at home, with Mrs PO flying off after they Powerful Owl territories left. - providing data to develop two new cut-in hollows targeted for Powerful Owl breeding - consultation around habitat building for four major urban developments in the Sydney Basin - a chance to provide education about owls, nest boxes and vegetation management to over 500 members of public via in person and online events with media outreach to +2000 people. For we BirdLife Australia science folk the best outcomes this season have been advancing data collection contributing directly to our understanding of rodenticide use as a threat to urban owls, better understanding movement patterns in dispersing owl youngsters and continuing to develop a network of communication between land managers, the public and scientists that benefits our declining owl fauna.

Whilst two chicks fledged at this nest, A Tale of Many Owls, COVID-style attacking a chick soon after fledge, were very likely contributors to the early death of the second Hi my name is Simon fledgling. A similar scenario happened in Sutherland Van der veen, better in 2018, when human visitors at fledge caused the known as Simmo. Kookaburras to pay unwanted attention to the I’ve been a volunteer owlets. Herein lies a cautionary tale about human for the Powerful Owl impacts on fledging. We always need to be mindful Project (POP) for a of our impacts on breeding birds. few years now. Basically, I’ve been sticking to my assigned area during Quick Statistics this time and last year I missed the MEASURE 2017 2018 2019 2020 whole breeding Citizen Scientists season because I 560 608 655 665 participating was in the Outback.

Known 181 212 214 239 This year has been PO territories completely different for everybody, owls included. Covid 19 lockdown meant my local gym and swim Potential breeding 60 124 93 127 centre were closed and nearly all social gatherings territories banned. So what better way to spend this period than looking for and monitoring endangered (and Pairs breeding 50 89 70 109 awesome) powerful owls. Yay.

Chicks fledged 78 126 84 90 Trudging up and down creek lines and valleys certainly kept up some level of fitness and funnily enough kept me pretty well socially isolated. A full breakdown of the 2020 season will be provided Curiously dark creek lines, mozzies and sewage pop th in the December 20 talk but one of the most tops only seem to attract the denizens of the bush, interesting outcomes we have found is the shift from oh and crazy owl spotters, of course. single chick clutches in 2019, to double and even a triple chick clutch! We are monitoring more owl pairs I learned quickly, after slipping into the first creek overall, but fewer of these pairs are breeding. There and soaking my shoes and phone, that gumboots and was a heartening trend for chicks in double chick old work pants beat runners and jeans every time. clutches to survive past the first month post-fledge. Good news indeed. Our blended owl family described later in this newsletter is one great success story, The first week of May I set out in hot pursuit of likely with three fledglings raised successfully and all well owl roosting areas hoping to find owl pairs within to date. Overall we are still seeing a declining trend habitat suitable for breeding. Using the satellite maps in our Sydney Basin owls. on my phone, I would find areas of thick bush, usually along a creek line and then go check them out. These searches took me through areas of the North Shore of Sydney and to the West that did not already Words from the People contain known owl territories. Tune in to a project wrap up Zoom talk on Sun 20th December at 7pm for full news on the Sydney PO population 2020 breeding season. Places are capped at 100, so please register using this link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx ?id=expDKyGaU0uJQ0oQ_2mXDeI4PEi31n5Oqt3rKx Sometimes 4Vl6xUMUg5TVFUUjdaTVo5RjFGSzRMVVZOTUFXNi4 when u owling, In the meantime, please read below some stories owls are not from our citizen scientists who have put in many hard all you find! yards this season to help our lovely owls and seen – Jenny Z some awesome things on the journey.

2 The Powerful Owl Project

Once a pair was found each and the other 2 both fledged 2 chicks each. I it was a matter of going saw a total of 31 different adult owls blessed with 9 back for weekly visits to white fluff balls of joy. Four of these territories also try and find that super contained owls. all-important nest hollow tree. Checking What else happens while out in the bush looking for too often could mean owls? Well I was spooked by countless swamp the owls change their wallabies crashing through the bush, in turn I behaviour which could spooked a poor sleeping bandicoot, got hit in the interrupt their breeding head by a (this I was actually grateful activities and that for considering it could have been an owl saying hello would have been the instead) screeched at by many raucous white last thing I wanted. cockatoos, pooped on by an incontinent possum, Using non-invasive copped a fair few mozzie bites, even more midge techniques is a must. bites, half a dozen ticks, saw some amazing hidden The less light the waterfalls, received a few odd looks from locals out better, even red on their nightly walk, 2 leeches, a couple of echidnas, torches can have an saw no , no bunyips, no nude walkers, found impact. Believe me 1 sleeping and a white bellied sea eagle in a when I say it is possible gum tree. to find and monitor owls and their nest hollows with no torch or infrared light whatsoever. What a way to spend my time during a global pandemic which hopefully was a once in a lifetime Finding nest hollow trees take time, patience, a occurrence. Looking routine, commitment and sometimes just a hint of after our threatened good fortune too. Never luck! Luck is sitting in your wildlife through warm, dry home looking out the window and seeing volunteering with the a nest hollow right there. Good fortune is standing in POP has been a one spot along a 1 km creek line in the cold and dark rewarding experience for 1 hour and hearing a chick trill from a hollow and many thanks go nearby. The feelings when finally seeing an adult owl out to Beth for sharing fly into or out of a hollow or hearing the chick trilling all her insightful inside were elation, joy and some relief. I felt totally knowledge and rewarded for the work that went into finding the passion. Furthermore, chicks and what the project is trying to achieve. thanks to all the wonderful volunteers Reporting these findings to Beth and knowing we and leaders who give could alert the land managers to this special tree, up their valuable time helping safe guard it during the breeding season and for this much needed hopefully longer. This will go a long way to giving project. If you are thinking of signing up, please do. these awesome, majestic and threatened owls a Our wildlife needs all the help they can get during better chance at living alongside us for longer these changing times. (despite everything we are throwing at them.) Happy non-invasive and rewarding owling, regards Lots of sites Simmo  turned up nothing but the lure of the next creek line, which could contain an owl was too much to ever stop looking. What I was able to find during the 5 months was 18 owl territories containing 5 single owls and 13 pairs. 10 of these were breeding pairs and I managed to find 7 new nest hollow trees and 3 nest hollow areas. Unfortunately, 3 of these nests failed. Out of the remaining 7 nests, 5 successfully fledged 1 chick

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Four Chicks and an Adoption…Probably! chick had ever been seen or heard in this territory this season, although this territory hadn’t been Over the last couple of months, we’ve been watching visited as regularly as the other, and it’s more an interesting situation play out in the urban difficult to monitor. In the territory much further to bushland in North Western Sydney. After an evening the south the pair had one chick and this was still when four chicks were seen together with an adult, a there with its parents. family which fledged two chicks, has consistently been seen with 3 chicks. The two adults have been There were many questions. For some of them we’ll feeding all three and all 3 appear to be strong and never know the answer. What had brought all those healthy. chicks together that night? Where did the extra one come from? Did the chick realise this wasn’t mum On October 14, a spur of the moment decision to and dad? Did the adults realise it wasn’t theirs? check on a Powerful Owl territory, led to us being ‘in Would they feed it? Would they kill it? Would it stay? the right place at the right time’. As we passed through the territory that we had gone to check, there was no trilling there, but we could hear trilling coming from the direction of the neighbouring territory. It was full darkness. As we approached, it was apparent there were multiple chicks, but we were very surprised to discover how many! As we were pulling out our red torches, the sound of the trilling was converging on a spot close by. When we located the owls in the torchlight, we could see a writhing, bobbing mass of bodies. As we made sense of what we were looking at – 3 PO chicks and an adult, lined up, side by side on a branch – another PO flew in and landed on a nearby branch. The conversation that followed went something along the lines of “What the…? It’s another chick!! No one’s going to believe us. Lucky there’s two of us here to The nest trees in these two territories are less than 500m apart and the chicks could definitely hear each other trilling. Maybe the chicks came together for company, out of curiosity, or because mum and dad were out, they were hungry, and it sounded like the neighbours had dinner!

We’ve been regularly visiting the trio of chicks. One of our first tasks was to take enough photos to work out how to tell the chicks apart. Luckily, they all had some distinctive ! Aside from a couple of occasions when the interloper went missing for a day, it has stayed with the family, and they have accepted it and they are feeding it. The chicks tend to roost in a pair, with the third close by. But the two in the pair keeps changing, so perhaps this ‘musical chairs’ in some way contributed to the extra chick being see it!!” They were all together for almost half an accepted. It also has a fairly pushy personality, which hour. Early on, two of the chicks flew to a branch near may have helped it be fed by adults that are not its to us, and for the rest of the time they were there, parents. Judging by development, it is older perched side by side. The adult didn’t come over to than its foster siblings, so that may have helped it to them and we didn’t see them with food. The other be assertive enough to get fed. two were given pieces of carcass, and when the adult left, they were both flapping clumsily as they tried to It looks promising for all 3 chicks to make it to simultaneously eat and not fall off the branch. adulthood. A couple of days ago, the three of them were roosting in their usual configuration of a pair In a visit to the area the next day, in one territory we plus one, and the interloper had a ringtail in its claws found two adults and 3 chicks in close proximity. This – they are growing up! territory had been monitored regularly by another observer and was known to have fledged two chicks this season. In the neighbouring territory to the north we found two adults and one chick. Only one

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Rehabilitation Stories information and carried out a range of analyses, we will have a measure of the genetic diversity of the PO’s and For those of you who haven’t managed to hear the will know where in the landscape genetic diversity is ABC Conversations story with Richard Fidler have a most similar or different, and so where we need to listen to Peggy’s story regarding the Higher Ground build corridors to foster greater genetic diversity. Raptor Rehab Centre and what happened during the We have included feathers from all of the different fires. It’s humbling to hear a first-hand account of areas you, the citizen scientists, have sampled, how much change even one individual can make, and ranging from Newcastle in the north to Nowra in the to learn more about how raptors are influenced by south and out to Picton in the west and Sydney in the fire. centre. We have also included all of the chick feathers https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversatio that have been sent to us and we will be working out ns/peggy-mcdonald/12413824 how related the PO’s are within these areas. Watch this space for some exciting results early in the new year. We will begin delivering training workshops for land managers, bush regen. folk and anyone else Brisbane Stories who is keen to learn more in February 2021. Read Rob Clemens and his team of excellent people have more on this project here: been pushing the Brisbane PO Project to lofty https://www.birdsinbackyards.net/content/article/littl heights. POP Brisbane have worked on some e--tells-big-story excellent modelling for fire impacts on large owls. Rob and the team have also explored options We have been very lucky to regarding creating a federal listing to create have been awarded an overarching protection for Powerful Owl, to no avail. Environmental Levy Grant Unfortunately, we just don’t have enough data for from Ku-ring-gai Council, to most of our forest owls to make a good case to lobby progress this work further in for better protection for these . Read all about 2020-21. We are investigating the many other excellent achievements of POP whether leafy suburbs really Brisbane in the 2020 project report available from the equal owl highways in the city, Powerful Owl Project page in late December when the and how genes are flowing draft report has been finalised. between the bush and the city. More news on this as it comes In the meantime, read all about POP Brisbane’s to hand. collaboration with QUT and a great foray into the world of eco-acoustics, somewhere POP Sydney may expand to in 2021. Rodenticides https://medium.com/thelabs/listening-out-for-the- We talked previously about rodenticides and the australian-powerful-owl-8bf729f4b759 review of the use of these poisons being undertaken by the regulatory body in Australia, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority Feathers and Green Corridors (APVMA). Despite growing evidence that rodenticides A huge thank you are likely to be significantly negatively impacting our to everyone who owls the APVMA has decided after consideration of has collected and more than 12 000 submissions, that no change to sent in feathers for regulations regarding the use of first and second us to use in our generation rodenticides is warranted, although some Powerful Owl labelling will be changed. Unfortunately this decision population genetics rests on a lack of data. project. Without your help we would not have the range of samples that we do. Here at POP we are doing something about this and The first part of the genetics project is well underway. with generous support from a project donor and with Feathers have been sampled and sent away for collaboration between Sydney Wildife, WIRES, sequencing and Drs Tracey Russell and Belinda Wright National Parks the Australian Museum, Taronga Zoo are now undertaking the analysis. This is time and POP we now have the first batch of samples we consuming as there is a lot of information to work can afford to analyse ready to go. Preliminary results through. from post-mortems have been confronting, but we We are using single nucleotide polymorphisms, more have pushed through this and collected samples that commonly known as SNPs (pronounced snips). These will contribute to a multitude of projects including can tell us where there are differences between and feather disease in raptors. It will be individuals and between populations. For each feather interesting to see if the lab results we will have somewhere between five and ten correlate with the physical symptoms identified in thousand SNPs! After we have sorted through all of this post-mortems, and excellent to begin disseminating

Dec 20 5 some data to begin the process of changing laws to • hollow mapping in the landscape and better protect wildlife. vegetation management following the Bushfire Royal Commission recommendations To sign up for our BirdLife Australia rodenticide • documenting the escalation of aggression campaign, download from other species, your free Owl- • exploring the Biodiversity Conservation Act’s friendly garden offset pricing of owls, and poster and get some • Sydney basin-wide threat mapping tips for controlling rodents at your place are all on the agenda along with some more work on go to: urban lighting, diet, nest boxes and urban tree hollows.

Anyone with GIS skills on board – we need you and can pay in great cake! Get in touch if you can help out. https://www.actforbirds.org/ratpoison See you on the flip side all. Stay safe, stay cool and enjoy all of our wonderful birds. There is still plenty to do before the 2021 breeding season begins; Beth Mott Powerful Owl Project Officer [email protected]

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