G’day COG members!
We had a great morning yesterday at Mulligans Flat doing bird surveys and finally heard a koel. A few scarlet robins calling too, but otherwise relatively quiet aside from the regular thornbill/weebill flocks.
The bush stone-curlew project is going well, and soon we’ll be releasing another cohort of birds to join the growing population. Very exciting! Some of the resident birds are breeding this season too despite the dry conditions,
so that is a great sign. Please let me know if you see any!
Birdlife’s annual twitchathon is fundraising for the bush stone-curlew project this year, which means we can purchase GPS trackers for the released birds. I’m sure you’ve heard of twitchathon, but if you haven’t it’s a
race where teams bird their nominated state (combining NSW and the ACT). Because I’m the student working on the bush stone-curlews this year, I’ll be racing in twitchathon! I’m aiming to see at least 150 species in NSW/ACT in 24 hours.
The bush stone-curlew twitchathon page is here: https://twitchathon2019.everydayhero.com/au/murderbirds
where you can donate or read updates about the project. I’ve been putting on photos and videos of the curlews. Donations are tax-deductable and go directly to bush stone-curlew reintroduction in the ACT. If you want to avoid a couple dollars in card fees associated
with paying online, I can also take cash donations.
The bush stone-curlew project is community-led, and COG has been championing the project since its inception in 2013. Thank you to those who have helped survey the birds, or come out to feed birds, or assisted Chris Davey on blitzes. Canberra is very fortunate
to have a passionate bunch of birdos supporting conservation.
Lastly, if you want to be involved or report curlew sightings, please be in touch!
Happy birding,
Shoshana
Twitcher and bird researcher
