May 22, 2017
Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) Workshops
You are invited to a free Workshop on Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) on August 5-6, 2017.
This workshop is aimed at KBA guardians, KBA survey volunteers and members of bird clubs and others who want to learn more about KBAs.
The workshop will be hosted by BirdLife Shoalhaven and will be held at St Georges Basin Community Health Centre, 21 Meriton Street, St Georges Basin, on the NSW South Coast, which is about 3 and a half hours drive south of Sydney. The programme for the Workshop is available on the Birding NSW website together with a Registration Form. On the first day topics covered include an introduction to KBAs and workshops on how to use Birdata, bird surveys, how to complete the KBA Health Check forms and how to spread the word about KBAs in communities. On the second day, survey techniques will be tested in the field at Booderee National Park Botanic Gardens. Please remember to download the Birdata app to your phone before the Workshop.
Guardians of KBAs and their survey supporters have priority for attendance at this workshop. While we will have room for up to 80 people on Day 1, the numbers on the Field Day on Day 2 will be limited to 40 people.
Please complete the Registration Form (see below) and return it to Elisabeth Karplus as soon as possible and not later than July 1, 2017. A final programme will be circulated closer to the date of the Workshop.
Download this invitation as a .pdf here: KBA Workshop invitation
Download the workshop registration form here: KBA Workshop Registration form August 2017
Download the workshop program here: KBAs – Shoalhaven Workshop program
May 16, 2017
Lake Cowal in the last flood
Report by Malcolm Carnegie,
Photography by Malcolm Carnegie
Projects Manager – Lake Cowal Foundation
Commencing in late June 2016, flooding rains over much of inland NSW through to the end of October 2016 saw the Lachlan River and Bland Creek fill Lake Cowal to a flood peak equivalent to that of 1990.
A flooded Bland Creek looking north to Lake Cowal
Once full, water flows from the north of Lake Cowal near Bogies Island into Nerang Cowal. From here, the Manna and Bogandillon Creeks flow into the Bogandillon Swamp and ultimately back into the Lachlan River.
Black Swans
When full, Lake Cowal covers an area of approximately 13,000 hectares with a length of 21 kilometres by 9.5 kilometres at its widest point, having a maximum depth of 3.5 metres, and taking a period of up to three years to dry mostly through evaporation, provided no significant inflows occur.
During the Spring/Summer/Autumn of 2016/17 a variety of waterbirds took the opportunity to breed in both the lignum areas and fringing river red gums of the lake. Species feeding and/or breeding in the various habitats of the lake included:
- Royal Spoonbill and Yellow-billed Spoonbill;
Royal Spoonbill
- White-necked Heron and White-faced Heron;
- Nankeen Night Heron;
- Great Egret;
- Little Black Cormorant, Little Pied Cormorant and Pied Cormorant;
- Australasian Darter;
- Eurasian Coot;
- Australasian Grebe and Great Crested Grebe;
Red-necked Avocets
Juvenile Nankeen Night-Heron
- Red-necked Avocet;
- Black Swan;
- White-headed Stilt;
- Whiskered Tern;
- Sacred Kingfisher;
Sacred Kingfisher
- Plumed Whistling Duck, Pink-eared Duck, Blue-billed Duck, Chestnut Teal and Pacific Black Duck;
-
Plumed Whistling-Ducks
Straw-necked Ibis
- Australian White Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis and Glossy Ibis;
- Magpie Goose observed and breeding for the first time since 1990.
Magpie Geese
White-necked Heron
Presently approximately 2,000 Australian Pelicans are fishing the shallower northern sections of Lake Cowal with the water level presently relatively stable through the winter months. With no further inflows, the lake is expected to have water in it through to the 2018/19 Summer.
Pelican-rookery; Nimmie-Caira
Pelican-rookery-Feb-17-Nimmie-Caira
Pelican rookery photographs were taken by by Vince Bucello at Nimmie Caira.
May 7, 2017
May 2017 Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater survey – May 20-21
BirdLife Australia is seeking volunteers to search for these birds across Victoria, NSW, ACT and Queensland, as Swift Parrots make their way up to the mainland from Tasmania and Regent Honeyeaters move about the landscape in search of flowering Eucalypt trees, on which to feed.
Says Caroline Wilson of the Wodland Birds team at BirdLIfe: “We generally ask volunteers to survey an area for approx 20 minutes (walking slowly along a walking track or through a park and observing birds). Any spot is fine for carrying out the survey (e.g. National Parks, conservation reserves, private property), but both species do prefer areas which contain flowering eucalypts for foraging or areas of heavy lerp and insect loads. You might find it useful to use our list of suggested survey locations as a guide. You can also contact one of the Woodland Birds for Biodiversity team (details below) and we can put you in touch with a local coordinator to help find suitable survey locations and to get site specific maps. We have recently generated maps of some of our suggested survey locations, particularly for larger sites such as National Parks, to help narrow the search. Sites which have been mapped are noted in the survey locations spreadsheet. Please also let us know if you would like more information about non-mapped sites.
If you wish to participate in the upcoming May 2017 survey or would like to report sightings of either species, please contact one of the members of BirdLife Australia’s Woodland Birds for Biodiversity team: Dean Ingwersen (Victoria, Regent Honeyeaters), Caroline Wilson (Victoria, Swift Parrots) or Mick Roderick (NSW, ACT & QLD, Swift Parrots at woodlandbirds@birdlife.org.au
Survey forms and survey locations are available at this BirdLife Australia website: http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/woodland-birds-for-biodiversity/latest-news-wl
April 7, 2017
Members are invited to submit their favourite photographs
Members are invited to submit photographs they have taken and wish to have displayed on the club website or to have published in the newsletter. All photographs must be the work of the submitting member (for copyright reasons) and should be 640Kb minimum size (so that they may appear in reasonable resolution) . Photographs can be submitted by email at the following address: info@birdingnsw.org.au or to newsletter@birdingnsw.org.au
When submitting a photograph – or two – please indicate whether you would like to have it displayed on the website or in the newsletter.
Check out this video of the Malleefowl and its mound