Hi Bruce,
Thanks for getting in touch. I emailed Alan Thomas on Monday about the possibility of getting some volunteers from COG to help
with the data collection for my noisy miner project (copied below). Maybe you could ask at the committee meeting tomorrow if it would be possible to send out an email to members to see if anyone would like to take part.
Thanks,
Richard
Hi Alan,
I’ve just started a PhD with David Lindenmayer at the Fenner School at ANU looking at the impact of noisy miners on small woodland birds. I will be conducting my first season of fieldwork between September and December
of this year and I’m looking for volunteers with a good knowledge of the region’s birds to help with some of the practical aspects. I wondered therefore if any COG members might be interested. All expenses will be paid.
The project will be based in the South West Slopes region around Gundagai and the study sites will be fragments of remnant vegetation on farms. The plan is to have 6 farms with two fragments per farm. This year, fieldwork
will aim to get baseline data for the sites on the following parameters:
1.
Noisy miner population
2.
Population of other birds
3.
Predation rates of artificial nests (This is an imperfect but efficient way of getting a baseline of potential predation. There will likely be very few nests in sites with miner colonies)
4.
Nesting occurrence of other species (ie absolute number of nests in a site over the breeding season)
5.
Nesting success of other species (measured as total survival rate ie the probability that an egg present at start of incubation will produce a fledgling)
Then next year miners will be removed from half the study sites and all sites once again monitored for the same parameters to see if culling is an effective method of encouraging small woodland birds to use the sites
for breeding. Now that the noisy miner is listed federally as a key threatening process it is likely that culling will be increasingly used as a control measure. This study hopes to provide scientific evidence for the effectiveness or otherwise of such a drastic
measure.
Would it be possible to pass this email on to any members that might be interested in taking part? They could then contact me directly and let me know what period they might be available for (ideally for a minimum of
one week).
Thanks for your assistance,
Richard Beggs
PS I’m a member of COG and if the group’s interested I would be happy to come along and give a talk about the planned study later in the year
From: [
Sent: Wednesday, 17 June 2015 11:55 AM
To: Richard Beggs
Subject: Noisy Miners
You spoke briefly to me about your project at COG general meeting last week. Unfortunately a lot of things were going and I was unable to give you much time..
This is a topic I have raised with David {Lindenmayer}, Adrian {Manning} and Laura {Rayner} over the years, based particularly on my observation of vegetation deterioration on
2 Noisy Miner sites {at Mulligans & Gooroo} I have surveyed multiple times over > 20 years. I’m delighted it’s going ahead.
The matter of your project is also on the agenda for COG Committee tomorrow evening.
I am going overseas on holiday from 26/6 to 28/7 but would be happy to share any views.
17 Monkman Street CHAPMAN ACT 2611
