Birds in Backyards e-Newsletter - August 2012
Submitted by Holly on Thu, 16/08/2012 - 14:24
For the html version of this newsletter (where you will be able to see some great photos), please click on this link: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/newsletter/Birds-Backyards-e-Newsletter-August-2012
Greetings Backyard Birders! Welcome to your August e-Newsletter.
In this edition we have a lot of great things happening to share with you but firstly an apology from us here at Birds in Backyards. We have had some problems with our servers and with bandwidth usage by the site recently. The site is very large and generates a lot of traffic (which is fantastic) so in the last week it became necessary to move to a new server. Thank you for your patience whilst the site was unavailable.
Angus’s Plants to help Aussie Birds
If any of you have watched Australian gardening shows, no doubt you will know Angus Stewart. Angus is a highly credentialed gardening and horticulture expert and currently presents on ABC1's Gardening Australia. He is passionate about Australian native plants and their ecological importance.
Birds in Backyards is thrilled to be working with Angus and with Focus Films on a series of videos highlighting great native plants to attract birds into your garden. The first two videos showcase spectacular Banksias – spinulosa and ericifolia, whose rich nectar and dense structure are great for many small and large birds. Go here: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/Videos-Anguss-Plants-Aussie-Birds to watch them.
We have many more videos planned so check back regularly (in fact we will be doing a shoot this weekend). Did you know we also have a youtube channel called BIBY TV? Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/birdsinbackyards and watch all the videos we have on Birds In Backyards plus many more.
The Powerful Owl Project Update
The Powerful Owl project continues to steam ahead with huge support from over 60 volunteer owl observers surveying 83 potential owl breeding locations from Newcastle to Sutherland. Two training sessions were held at Taronga and Sutherland at the end of June to get our volunteers up to speed along with some general information sessions. Over 170 sightings have come in from the general public, indicating that the owls are out and about and being noticed. So far there are 11 known active nest sites with many more reports to still come in. At least one site has young chicks already so hatching looks to have begun. Looking forward to late August and the start of spring when the chicks should emerge from the nest and make themselves known.
David Stowe and Kristen Hardy have captured some amazing footage of Powerful Owl behaviour and we are so grateful that they have allowed us to share it with you all. A big thank you to Focus Films for putting it all together in a lovely video that you can see here: http://youtu.be/XNeRTJzzTVU
Photographer: K Hardy
News from the Nest
Last year many of you, along with thousands of other people around the world watched a pair of White-bellied Sea-Eagles raise a gorgeous eaglet through EagleCAM. The great news is that BirdLife Australia and the BirdLife Discovery Centre have brought EagleCAM back in 2012 - and this time there is sound! They are already on the nest and their egg should be ready to hatch on about August 21 so it is the perfect time to tune in: http://www.sea-eaglecam.org/video.html
The Sea-Eagles haven't made life easy for us though, deciding to build their nest in a new tree this season. Still, the EagleCAM crew are hoping to improve the camera location once the crucial egg-incubation stage is complete. Read more about News from the Nest in the latest EagleCAM newsletter: http://birdlifeaustralia.createsend5.com/t/ViewEmail/r/36407E63FE9489F2
Photographer: G Hutchinson
Cockatoo Wingtag: Assessing Population Size, Site Loyalty and Movements of Urban Sulphur-crested Cockatoos
The Cockatoo Wingtags project is not a Birds in Backyards project but is instead run by the University of Sydney and the Royal Botanic Gardens. It is a fascinating piece of research and we have asked one of the project co-ordinators, Adrian Davis, to tell us more about what they are doing:
Surprisingly, despite being both large and loud as well as having an affinity for human interaction, there is little scientific information known about the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), particularly within urban environments. The Wingtags project aims to increase our understanding of the ecology of these native birds, and by doing so ensure not only the conservation of these birds and their habitat into the future, but to also promote the importance of urban wildlife within our cities.
As the first project to ever under take the tagging and monitoring of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos in an urban environment, it has so far been an enormous success. To date, 51 Sulphur-crested Cockatoos have been tagged and released within the Royal Botanic Garden and we have had over 700 community reports via our dedicated email address, Facebook page and our recently developed iphone application. We currently have over 880 members of the community following the progress of the cockatoos via Facebook and the phone app.
Early data suggest that site loyalty to the Royal Botanic Garden seems to be high. The majority of the cockatoos are frequently sighted within the Garden or in the surrounding suburbs of Potts Point and Woolloomooloo. Several cockatoos are regularly seen in Mosman and Centennial Park and there have been reports from Revesby and Como.
If you see a tagged cockatoo please either email cockatoo.wingtag@gmail.com or report the sighting via Facebook www.facebook.com/cockatoowingtags or our iphone app ‘wingtags’.
Piece written by Adrian Davis, Photographer: S Veich
Upcoming Events
Being based in Sydney means that most of our events are Sydney-focused. We want to change that though! If you have any bird/garden related activities in other regions that you want to promote then please let us know and we can pop it on the Birds in Backyards home page.
Willoughby Fauna Fair – 26th August – Willoughby, Sydney
At this event you can get up close and personal with Australian native animals with great hands-on shows. There are children’s activities about wildlife and pets. There are information stalls so you can find out about wildlife living around us, how to create wildlife friendly gardens, or help in local bushland and how to be involved in caring for wildlife. You can find out about wildlife that will help you in the vegetable garden too, and how to reduce the impact of those that help themselves. Birds in Backyards will be part of the BirdLife Australia stand at the event.
Wildlife Art Society of Australasia Exhibition – from 13th September- Steps Gallery, MelbourneThe Wildlife Art Society of Australasia is supporting the Birds in Backyards Program at Wild Awards 2012 – its biennial awards exhibition that will be running from the 13th till the 26th of September at Steps Gallery in Carlton. Go to: http://www.wildlifeartsociety.com for more information. Dr. David Bain (our Powerful Owl project officer) will be at the official opening on the 15th.
We thank WASA for their support.
Bird Week – October
Every October, BirdLife Australia organises and promotes Bird Week with the goal of inspiring Australians to take action and get involved in bird conservation. For almost 100 years, October 28 has been designated ‘Bird Day’ across Australia.
Spring in Australia is the peak nesting and breeding time for many birds. So October is a great time to get out and see birds in action and learn more about how you can help them. This year, our focus is on the needs of nesting birds and the variety of nesting styles birds adopt as we celebrate Who’s nesting where?
During October and into November BirdLife Branches and Centres around Australia will host activities in their local region. Why not try a bushwalk, a talk in your school or workshop? Get involved with a habitat restoration or see a display in your tourist centre, library or community centre.
Watch out for these key dates:
- Mid-September – free information kits including a poster, brochures and details of the Bird Week Best Nest Competition will be available
- October 1- Best Nest Competition starts. Check birdlife.org,au in September for details about prizes and how to enter
- October 22-28 – Celebrate Bird Week with a variety of events throughout Australia
As part of BirdLife Australia, we at Birds In Backyards are also working on some new features and resources for the Birds In Backyards website that will embrace the nesting theme of Bird Week. We will bring you a special early edition of the next e-Newsletter to introduce you to them and to highlight how you all can be involved.
Photographer: R Major/Australian Museum
Gardening Tips
Planting hedges or thickets of native plants are a great way to put in habitat that is aesthetically beautiful and can also provide an important screening function in your garden. Shrubs like Coastal rosemary (Westringia fruticosa), Lilly pilly (Sygzium spp), Hop bush (Dodonaea viscosa) or the Smooth leafed Quandong (Eleocarpus eumundi) all respond fantastically to pruning and can be used to make beautiful hedges (of course investigate your locally native plants to find others). When creating a native hedge, as with any planting, think about the size you want it to grow and whether the plant you want to use fits that bill.
By slowly pruning and shaping shrubs as they grow (whether in clumps in a garden bed or in a hedge), you have control over the shape of the shrub and encourage dense coverage rather than that scrawny, leggy growth that natives can sometime get. Tip-prune the new growth (using your finger tips) to encourage that bushy habit and always be gentle when doing more general pruning, never take out any branches thicker than your thumb.
Don’t forget to check out the ‘Creating Places for Birds’ section of the Birds in Backyards website for more information about creating a bird-friendly garden and visit our Gallery of Gardens there too for visual inspiration. You can also read more gardening tips in my column in Australian BirdLife (out quarterly). Go to http://www.birdlife.org.au to join BirdLife Australia and to get your subscription.
Photographer: K Ravich
Feature Bird: The Bush Stone-curlew
This rather quirky bird is a favourite of many. It is also a bird that is in trouble in most of its range and a rarity in backyards. In fact only 0.9% of our Backyard Bird Surveys have recorded it (thats about 120 surveys submitted).
The Bush Stone-curlew is a ground-dwelling bird with mottled brown plumage, making it excellent at camouflage. It also has long legs and resembles a wading bird more than a woodland species. They tend to be found in woodland, forest and partially cleared farmland habitats with a grassy understory and with leaf litter and fallen timber on the ground. They are sometimes found close to beaches near mangroves and saltmarshes and even in some urban areas, particularly where there is a lot of lawn, like golf courses and cemeteries. You will usually only see one or a few birds together in one location and they are fairly inactive during the day. They are very shy and wary of being approached. If they are disturbed they will usually freeze before moving off either standing very upright and walking slowly or with their head lowered and scurrying. Its mournful “werloo” cry is heard at night, and there is often a chorus of individuals joining in.
Loss of woodland habitat and predation by feral animals like foxes have resulted in the dramatic decline of this species to the point where it is classified as Endangered in NSW and Victoria and Rare in South Australia. It is not listed federally though and is secure in Western Australia and Queensland (and is absent from Tasmania). Strangely, there is a successful population in the suburbs of Brisbane that seem to be doing well. See Australian BirdLife’s upcoming issue for an article that investigates why they may be doing so well there.
For more information about the Bush Stone-curlew, read our fact sheet: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Burhinus-grallarius
Photographer: Norman Chaffer Estate/Australian Museum
Your support is vital! As part of a non-profit conservation organisation, the BirdLife Australia Birds in Backyards Program is funded primarily through public donations. We rely on this support to run research, education and conservation programs that helps people to increase the variety of native birds that live in their neighbourhood, and that delivers important urban bird projects that support key species like the Powerful Owl. Please make a donation today and help create a bright future for the birds in backyards: http://birdlife.org.au/support-us/donate/
Cheers
Holly
Holly Parsons
Birds in Backyards Program Manager
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