Good morning COG/Canberra Birds members and chat line subscribers, a reminder that the monthly COG/Canberra Birds meeting will be held tomorrow evening Wednesday 10 September
from 7:30 pm at the Canberra Girls Grammar School.
However, please note that we will again be meeting in the Chapel while the Multi-media Theatre (MMT) is being renovated. The amended map showing the new arrangements
can be accessed through the following link
Canberra Birds monthly meeting location - Canberra Birds.
Everyone is welcome so please come along to hear about mixed species flocking of birds as well as the post-fire study of birds in the ACT’s Snow Gum woodlands.
There will be the usual raffle, and you will also be able to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee after the meeting.
Jack Holland
The September 2025 meeting will be a normal face-to-face one held as usual at the Canberra Girls Grammar School but will again be held in the Chapel
where we will be meeting for the rest of 2025 while the Multi-media Theatre (MMT) is being renovated (see details below).
Yiqing Chen
-
Global distribution and evolution of mixed-species flocking in birds
Bethany Dunne
and
Stuart Harris - Birds of the Snow Gum woodlands: a post-fire study
The Chapel is much easier to find than the MMT. As for previous 2025 meetings entry and exit for the Chapel are from the main gates
on Melbourne Ave, which automatically open and close. The Entry gate will be open, so please drive through and park in the main parking area to your left. Once parked proceed to the Chapel using main path as previously before turning left at the Admin Hub,
or use the more direct (but darker) route keeping the Boarding House to your left – see the amended map to that provided by the Canberra Girls Grammar School accessed on the link
Canberra Birds monthly meeting location
- Canberra Birds.
Limited parking will also be available using the Chapel Drive entrance on Gawler Cres and car park, this gate should also be open.
Though it is well lit, as it will be dark before and after the meeting, a torch for finding your way to the Chapel and back to your
car is recommended. The Exit gate is on a sensor pad, so please drive up to the gate and it will open for you.
As COVID is still widespread in the community attendees should heed social distancing and good hygiene practice etc, and use their
common sense and stay home if they have COVID symptoms. Mask wearing is recommended.
The short presentation will be by
Yiqing Chen, a Ph D student at the Research School of Biology at the ANU, and is titled: “Global distribution and evolution of mixed-species flocking in birds.”
Mixed-species grouping is considered uncommon in animals, while frequently seen in birds. But just how common is this behaviour? Studies
on mixed-species flocking have focused on benefits, costs and things happening within the flocks. However, to date we still do not know how many species join mixed-species flocks. We extracted the flocking behaviour data not just from published literature,
but also from field guides, which are rich in natural history knowledge. Thus, we were able to quantify how widespread mixed-species flocking is and highlight that mixed-species grouping is a majorly overlooked but important form of social behaviour.
The main presentation will be by
Bethany Dunne and Stuart Harris, Fire Ecologist and Project Officer, respectively, in the ACT Government Office of Nature Conservation, on “Birds of the Snow Gum woodlands: a post-fire study.”
During the devastating Black Summer bushfires of 2020, large areas of Snow Gum woodlands across the ACT were burnt, much of it experiencing
high severity fire for the second time in just 17 years. As this vegetation type represents a large proportion of the ACT uplands, the ACT Government Office of Nature Conservation fire ecology team started a monitoring project in 2020, investigating the interactions
between fire history, vegetation structure and fauna in the Snow Gum woodlands of the ACT. This talk will discuss one of the sub-projects looking at the avian passive acoustic monitoring and analysis completed to date and will include a talk by Stuart Harris
and his significant contribution to the bird surveys.
