Our woodland bird surveys – what are we finding?
Posted on 7 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
Our resident bird expert, Tanya Loos, is midway through Connecting Country’s 2014 Winter bird surveys. She is monitoring 50 sites that are located on public and private land throughout the Mount Alexander Region. Some are within ‘intact’ woodland, some are in woodland restoration areas (e.g. re-planting areas) and some are in lightly treed farm paddocks.
A birds-eye view of a birdwatcher, Tanya.
Annually, the 50 sites are visited twice in Winter and twice in Spring. Each site covers two hectares, and all birds seen or heard within this area over a 20 minute period are documented. By the end of August 2014, we will have completed four years of bird monitoring across these sites. Many thanks to the landholders that have allowed us to undertake these surveys on their properties.
During the 2013 surveys, 104 bird species were documented – six of which had not been recorded during the previous years of survey (including three species flying overhead – Great Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, Straw-necked Ibis; and three using habitats within the sites – Black Kite, Tawny Frogmouth, Banded Lapwing). Click here for a list of all bird species detected so far. Many specialised woodland-dependent species have been recorded, although none are considered to be particularly common.
Last year, Connecting Country staff comprehensively analysed the data collected from our 2011 and 2012 bird surveys. A copy of the full final report is available (click here), or alternatively, shorter summaries of the main findings are also available (click here and here).
Keep your eyes and ears open for the imminent launch of Connecting Country’s new ‘citizen-science’ bird monitoring program that everyone can get involved with. A local bird and habitat identification guide is also to be released in the near future.
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