FW: Masked lapwings and beetles

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Hi everyone,

 

I received a call from a member of the Defence Environment Team, Mark Armstrong, yesterday regarding a problem they are having with Masked Lapwings on their air fields.  Apparently there has already been an incident with an aircraft, and Mark believes the lapwings are attracted to the airfield because of an infestation of beetles:

 

"I am trying to identify the species of beetles that are being eaten by the masked lapwings on the airfield at HMAS Albatross.  Last year was particularly good year for masked lapwings, they nested early and may well have raised and fledged 2 clutches.  This has resulted in a larger than normal population on the airfield and their has been an incident with an aircraft that resulted in the Environment Team becoming involved.

 

As agreed I will send the samples of bird droppings to you and I will attempt to sample the insect fauna one evening and send them as well."

I will be trying to get the beetles identified for Mark so that he can look at controlling the beetle numbers, but he would like to hear from anyone who may have had similar experiences with controlling birds (particularly Masked Lapwings) on air fields.  he also has a request regarding monitoring protocols for birds:

"I recall that you said that you were a member of Birds Australia so I have a further favour:

 

1.  Have any of you fellow members been involved in this sort of airfield issue with masked lapwings?

 

2.  Do you know of a contact in Birds Aust whose contact details I can pass onto a colleague looking for protocols for bird monitoring?"

If anyone can offer advice on the above issues, please contact Mark directly (.  If someone could also post this enquiry to the Birding Aus email list, I would appreciate it.

 

Cheers,

Beth

 

Dr Beth Mantle
Collection Manager
Australian National Insect Collection
CSIRO Entomology
GPO Box 1700, Canberra  ACT  2601, Australia
Ph: +61-2-6246 4281  Mob: 0429 120 205

Fax: +61-2-6246 4262  Web: www.csiro.au/ANIC