Hello COG members/chat line subscribers,
A reminder that the 11 May COG meeting tomorrow evening will again be a normal face-to-face one held at our usual
venue, from 7:30 pm at the multi-media centre at the Canberra Girls Grammar School in Deakin.
Details of the speakers are below.
“Parents and carers can attend permitted activities where they are outdoors, outside of
school hours, or ticketed. Parents and carers must follow COVID smart measures at all times on school sites (physical distancing, hygiene practices, staying away if unwell).
Events on school sites that involve the general public can only be held outside of school hours, must have a COVID Safety Plan in Place, and must comply with the COVID Safe Events Guidance.”
Therefore you will still need to wear a mask and also check in using the Check in CBR QR code, as noted in the COG
COVID Safety Plan available on the COG web site (COG-CGGS-Checklist-COVID-19_09Mar22.pdf
(canberrabirds.org.au).
Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you there to listen to the two Julians’ very interesting presentations.
Jack Holland
The short presentation will be by
Julian Teh from the Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO on “Introducing the Plains-wanderer”.
Julian’s talk will cover an introductory overview of the Plains-wanderer’s biology, life history, and what makes them such an interesting and unique species. He will
talk a bit about his experiences with them in the field, discuss how best to find one in the wild, and briefly touch on some of the illustration work he has done with them over the last three years.
The main presentation will be by
Julian Reid, an Honorary Lecturer at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU, with the title: “Long-term Trends of Birds in the Cowra District, central Western Slopes, NSW.”
A
BirdLife Australia project, the Cowra Woodland Birds Program (CWBP) arose from growing concerns over the conservation prospects
of birds in the woodlands of south-eastern Australia. After a Cowra local businessman, farmer and birdwatcher, John Rankin, attended a Scientific Day in Sydney, he met with the late Dr Sue Briggs and Julian to raise concerns about the loss of small woodland
birds in his local area. From small things big things grow. Julian will briefly describe the range of activities the CWBP has undertaken, focussing on the long-term dataset of systematic bird observations taken at numerous sites from autumn 2002 onwards.
The results of statistical modelling of the population trajectories (“trends”) of 105 species and 18 community indices are summarised for the first 17 years, and comparisons made with the results of similar long running programs including those of COG. Illustrating
the divergent trends shown by various species, Julian will highlight the most significant findings from a bird conservation perspective and make a few comments about the limitations of unfunded citizen-science research.
