After the devastating fires which wiped out all the heathland and eucaylpt
forest of the Royal National Park, Sydney, it was surprising how quickly
the small birds returned. Where did they all go? When we were eventually
allowed back into the park, the numbers were amazing. I haven't seen a
paper on the recovery of the park but I'm sure one will be produced one
day.
Trevor & Annie Quested
Sydney, Australia
Phone +61 2 9955 6266
Fax + 61 2 9959 4005
It would be nice if there were papers produced on this subject but I've
found that people monitoring sites before a fire seem to give it away after
the fire because the birds have gone and the landscape it uninspiring.
This applies to bird banders as well who would have a great opportunity to
monitor the recolonisation and survival of their marked birds. I know this
was done, and documented, for the Brindabella Ranges in the ACT using
something like thirty years of data and data is being collected in the
Menai area in southern Sydney (that's right isn't it Keith?) but it isn't
common. I have heard several banders say they would love to do such as
study but it can be difficult for an amateur birdo to structure such as
study with several years pre-burn and then a wildfire as experienced in
1994.
David Geering
|
