canberrabirds

Brown Treecreeper reintroduction

Subject: Brown Treecreeper reintroduction
From: Ian Fraser <>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:13:13 +1100
If you're interested, and have access to a radio, Victoria will be talking to Louise Maher about this on 666 at 5.45 this afternoon. If you can't listen then, I'd expect the interview to be available subsequently via the 666 Drive blog, here. http://blogs.abc.net.au/canberra/canberra_drive/

cheers

Ian

Victoria Ann Bennett wrote:
Hi Everyone

I thought that I would send out some information to you all about the Brown Treecreeper reintroductions.

There are seven Brown Treecreeper family groups throughout Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo Nature Reserves. Five of these are in Mulligans and two are in Goorooyarroo. In total we brought in about 40 birds from populations in Wagga Wagga. These birds were brought in in intact family groups with dependent fledglings to help promote social cohesion and site fidelity.

The releases themselves generally went really well. We tended to release the birds all at once so that they knew that their family members were there. Using this method the birds would call to each other almost instantly and easily joined up as a group.

After their releases, the groups have been fairly stationary, with the exception of one group that moved away from noisy miners. Most groups have remained quite close to where they were released, generally moving together if they have moved. Interestingly there has been a few examples of the breeding females leaving the group for short periods of time to explore the habitat around them, and then returning either the same day or a few days later. There are also a few helper males who have gone on exploratory forays. For example, USB Port left his family to explore a patch just outside the Mulligans predator proof fence, stayed for a few days, then returned home, then went back, then returned home, and as of this morning he had gone back out on his own. Another male from the same group, Rumplestiltskin, has done a similar thing, but he seems to have moved around a bit more than USB Port.

The last two groups that we released were released into Goorooyarroo. Over the last few days in particular we have noticed that they have expanded their territories a bit and have actually made contact with each other. I noticed the female from one group (Kaja Goo Goo) in the same tree as a member from the other group, and they were calling to each other as if saying "who are you, and what are you doing in my tree?" So members from both of those groups definitely know about each other and it will be interesting to see how they interact.

The survival from the released birds has been really good so far. We have lost a couple of birds, but that can be expected. For example Legs (a breeding female) went missing for a few days and then her transmitter turned up in a pellet from a bird of prey. But overall the survival rate is really good and the groups have also been staying together really well.

All of this monitoring is possible using radio-transmitters attached to some of the birds (mostly breeding females and male helpers), which help us track the birds each day and keep an eye on where they are moving. We are also observing the birds to get behavioural data so that we can see how things change over time, and what type of micro-habitat they use most. All of the birds are also colour-banded, and given names according to their colour bands.

So there are now Brown Treecreepers in Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo. If you would like further information, please do not hesitate to ask me. However, please be aware that I am in the field most days and therefore only check my email about once a week. Also, if you would like to help out in monitoring these birds please also contact me.

There have been quite a few people helping to make this project happen. In particular Dr. Erik Doerr and Dr. Veronica Doerr from CSIRO, Peter Mills and Grant Woodbridge from Parks Conservation and Lands, Jenny Stott, and the many volunteers both in Wagga Wagga and in Canberra. So a big thanks to all of them.

Kind Regards
Victoria



--

Ian Fraser, 
Environment Tours; Vertego Environmental Consultancy
GPO Box 3268, Canberra, ACT 2601
ph: 61 2 6249 1560 ---


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