July 31, 2020
September club meeting to proceed via ZOOM
Matt Hall’s talk on the Australian Brush-turkey has been brought forward.
SYNOPSIS
The Australian Brush-turkey was once rare due to overhunting, but is now commonly observed in urban areas. Colonising and surviving in cities is a difficult feat for many species. My research aims to understand how Brush-turkeys are behaving in, moving through, and using habitat in the Sydney suburbs. Citizen scientists are helping us track their movements and have provided a wealth of data on their behaviours and distribution. Combing public participation with traditional ecological research is helping to unravel the mystery of how the species is thriving in the hostile environment of the big city.
Look out for the link in the forthcoming Bulletin #158.
July 18, 2020
Regent Honeyeaters and Swift Parrots: an update from Birdlife Australia
On July 7, 2020, Mick Roderick gave his presentation on “Regent Honeyeaters and Swift Parrots – an update from BirdLife Australia” to Birding NSW via Zoom. He kindly agreed for the talk to be recorded for club members to view via the Birding NSW website (www.birdingnsw.org.au). I apologise that the initial part of the presentation is missing but the remainder of the presentation provides important information on the current status of these birds and the work being done particularly for the Regent Honeyeater to monitor and protect these birds.
A full set of slides used by Mick Roderick in this talk is available on the “What the Guest Speakers said” page.
In this video, Mick Roderick gives an update on Regent Honeyeaters and Swift Parrots.
Elisabeth Karplus
July 12, 2020
New website for NSW ORAC
The website includes a comprehensive Index of Cases which includes all NSW reports that have been submitted to NSW ORAC and BARC both accepted and not accepted, and also includes known reports of rare species for which no submission was made. Most of these latter reports are shown at the end of the Index of Cases as not confirmed/not assessed but some have case numbers since, in the early days of NSW ORAC, case numbers were sometimes assigned when a sighting was claimed but which was not followed up with a submission. The Index of Cases can be searched by species names, dates, sites, etc and there is also a downloadable PDF version.
The latest revision of the NSW ORAC Review List is on the site as a PDF file and the URR Form is on the site as a downloadable Word document which can be used to prepare submissions to the committee.
Vist the site here: www.nsworac.org/
July 6, 2020
Annual Photo Competition applications are due by 25 September 2020
Application forms and competition rules are available here.
