City of PAE Citizen Science Volunteer Project Atlas of Living Australia - Port Adelaide Enfield Flora & Fauna Monitoring Project

Overview of activity that has been undertaken in the 2020 Spring period

Activity & volunteer information Numbers New volunteer registrations 2 Number of volunteer training webinars 2 Number of bird surveys set-up 3 additions Total number of bird observations 2500 Total volunteer hours 51

2020 Spring bird survey results from (1st September to 30th November) The percentage % frequency of bird observations at Folland Park, River Torrens Linear Park, Mutton Cove and Barker Inlet South Council reserves is the main measuring indicator used for this summary report. The below frequency category defines the frequency size from a given observation sample. For example, the Noisy Miners in the below chart indicates a frequency of 28%, this means that the bird species fits within the large observation frequency category. Note that species frequency is calculated by how many times you observe that species in each individual survey and is an important statistic to measure species abundance in a given habitat. Below is an example of a 100m transect at Folland Park with 4x (50x50m2) quadrant titles:

Observation Frequency category % Large => 20% Medium 5 - 20% Small =< 5%

1 2020 Spring Bird Survey Report Folland Park Spring Bird % Frequency Observations

13

0 31 0 0 0 3 1

10

0 1 2 0 38

Red Wattlebird Black-faced cuckooshrike Australian raven Magpie-lark Australian Magpie White-Plumbed Honeyeater Noisy Miner Crested Pigeon New Holland Honeyeater Crimson Rosella Eastern Rosella Spotted Dove Common starling Rainbow Lorikeet

The above indicates that White-plumbed Honeyeater are the most commonly observed species at Folland Park (38%) falls within large frequency category, followed by Red Wattlebird (31%), and thirdly Rainbow Lorikeet (13%).

Mutton Cove Spring Bird % Frequency Observations

1

2 3 4 10 19 0 0 2 0

4 11 1 0 12 7 0 6 0 15 0 1

Australian Pelican Australian Raven Australian White Ibis Black Nerite/Periwinkle Budgerigar Chestnut Teal Cormorants Crested Pigeon Crows and Jays Great Egret Grey Teal Little Egret Magpie-Lark Marsh Sandpiper Pacific Swallow Pelecans Pied Stilt Red Wattlebird Royal Spoonbill Singing Honeyeater Starling White-Faced Heron

2 2020 Spring Bird Survey Report

The above chart indicates that Singing Honeyeater is the most commonly observed species at Mutton Cove (19%) and falls within medium frequency category, followed by Pacific Swallow (15%), and thirdly the Pied Stilt (12%).

River Torrens Linear Park Spring Bird % Frequency Observations

1 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 1 4 1 27

0 14 1 0 2 1 2 0 0 9 0 29 1

Clamorous reed warbler Pacific Black Duck Australian Reed-Warbler Sulphur Crested Cockatoo Little Corella Australian Wood Duck Rock Dove Australian Raven Laughing Kookabara Galah Dusky Moorhen Musk Lorikeet Magpie-lark Australian Magpie Welcome Swallow Noisy Miner Little Pied Cormorant Crested Pigeon New Holland Honeyeater Crimson Rosella Eastern Rosella Spotted Dove Striated Pardalote Australian White-Ibis Rainbow Lorikeet

The above chart indicates that Noisy Miner are the most commonly observed species at River Torrens (29%) and falls within large frequency category, followed by Rainbow Lorikeet (27%), and thirdly Musk Lorikeet (14%).

3 2020 Spring Bird Survey Report

Barker Inlet South Spring Bird % Frequency Observations 0 0 1 0 0 3 2 1 3 7 3 5 2 1 11 1 0 2 5 0 5 4 1 0 3 1 2 0 0 10 4 1 0 4 3 4 2 0 0 1 2 0 2 01 0 1 0 1 0 Australian Reed Warbler Common Sandpiper Chestnut teal Grey teal Pacific Black Duck Australasian darter Red Wattlebird Hardhead Musk Duck European goldfinch Australian Wood Duck Silver Gull Grey shrikethrush Rock Dove Australian Magpie Black Swan Little Egret White-faced heron Black-fronted dotterel Red-kneed dotterel Eurasian coot Dusky moorhen Magpie-lark Whistling kite Black-winged stilt Welcome Swallow White-plumed honeyeater Singing Honeyeater Superb fairywren Little grassbird Little pied cormorant Crested pigeon Blue-billed duck House Sparrow Australian pelican Tree martin Little black cormorant New Holland Honeyeater Royal spoonbill Hoary-headed grebe Western swamphen Willy Wagtail Spotted Dove Common Starling Australian shelduck Australian White Ibis Black-tailed nativehen Rainbow Lorikeet

The above chart indicates that Grey Teal are the most commonly observed species at Barker Inlet South (11%) and falls within medium frequency category, followed by Silver Gull (10%), and thirdly Australian White-Ibis (7%).

4 2020 Spring Bird Survey Report

Discussion of Results It appears that large frequency of White-Plumbed Honeyeaters and Red Wattlebirds were observed at Folland Park over the spring months. The large number of Red Wattlebirds observed maybe due to the nectar from flowering of the Red Mallee and a variety of Acacia species through this period as the weather has become a little warmer. It is disappointing to see again a large frequency of Noisy Miners at River Torrens again. This has been a common trend observed throughout 2020 along with high numbers of Rainbow Lorikeets. Hopefully as the 2018 revegetated zones establish at Pittman Park other birds such as New Holland Honeyeater and other small honeyeaters maybe attracted to occupy in this area. We may need to encourage the growth of native creepers such as Hardenbergia to provide hiding places for honeyeaters and increase the native grass patches to provide a seed source for small birds to feed from in the coming years. There was a medium frequency of Singing Honeyeaters observed at Mutton Cove Reserve, higher than any other time reported probably due to the various eucalyptus and acacia species flowering in the warmer months along the northern buffer of Mutton Cove Reserve. Barker Inlet Wetlands South is the first survey addition picked up in this report. Other wetland survey results will be included in the report as we gain more observations. As you can see there is high number of species diversity as you would expect from a freshwater wetland system, however the above pie graph indicates that there was generally a low number of individual bird species observed. There will be more commentary to come on local wetland birds as we gather more observations in future months. Coastal Sand dunes, Biodiversity Park, Dry Creek, Barker Inlet Wetlands and Whicker Road Wetlands observations were not extracted for this report as there was not enough individual survey observations undertaken across the spring period at these sites to discuss observations. If you want to find out more information about these sites please go to the Atlas of Living Australia “Port Adelaide Enfield Flora & Fauna Monitoring Project” Webpage. To find out more about these bird surveys and trends you can visit the CityofPAE Biodiversity webpage where you can find more detailed reports about bird research undertaken locally and across Greater Adelaide area. Stay tuned for the next project report summary from summer 2020-21.

5 2020 Spring Bird Survey Report