|
Folks, and especially those of you with interests
in the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port area of southern central
Victoria:
On December 19 last year a ceremony was held on
French Island to celebrate the inauguration of the Mornington Peninsula and
Western Port Biosphere Reserve. This followed UNESCO's acceptance in
November 2002 of the nomination prepared by a partnership of agency and
community representatives and individuals over a long period during
2001-02. MP&WPBR therefore joined the network of over 400 Biosphere
Reserves scattered through about a hundred countries around the world.
Throughout the twelve months following the inauguration ceremony, various
sub-committees have worked on developing a Charter and a Constitution for the
Foundation to be established to manage the Biosphere Reserve in accordance with
the aspirations contained in the nomination.
At 7 pm next Friday evening 19 December 2003, the
first anniversary of the French Island ceremony, in the Pelican Pantry at the
Hastings Jetty, a meeting of interested people is being convened at which
individuals and organisations will be able to sign up, pay the princely sum
of $10 annual subscription and formally vote the Foundation into
existence. The Foundation's proposed Constitution and Charter will be
considered and, we hope, adopted by the new membership on the night. This
will enable the Foundation to begin to operate in accordance with the
Corporations Act. The meeting will also consider a resolution to institute
a review of the Constitution and the Charter in twelve months' time, once there
has been a chance to "suck it and see" in practice and identify opportunities
for fine-tuning (or indeed major surgery, if that should prove
necessary).
There has been much agonising and debate at the
sub-committee level about elements of the management arrangements contained in
the documents that have now been drafted. While it has not been possible
to satisfy everyone's exact preferences in terms of wording, I am confident that
the benefits to be gained from having a functional Biosphere Reserve entity that
can move into action on a variety of sustainability fronts greatly outweigh the
benefits of deferring while further wordsmithing and negotiation over matters of
detail takes place. SO...
If you have some interest in the area, whether as a
resident, a holiday home owner, a worker, a researcher, an occasional or regular
visitor or just as a supporter of sustainability, and you'd like to be involved
from the start, this is your chance. If you can't be at Hastings on Friday
evening, contact the Project Officer, Amy McDonald, at about
filling in a form remotely and getting on the list. There is plenty of
information about the Biosphere Reserve, including the full text of the UNESCO
nomination, available on the Mornington Peninsula Shire website (www.mornpen.vic.gov.au). Other
organisations involved include the Cities of Frankston and Casey and the Shires
of Cardinia and Bass Coast, Parks Victoria, Phillip Island Nature Park,
BlueScope Steel (formerly BHP), Mt Eliza Local Learning and Employment Network
and the Western Port and Peninsula Protection Council. Feel free also to
give me a ring at work on 03 9881 8897 or drop me an email there at
I hope to see lots of birding-ausers
there!
On the topic of birding, I dropped by the Edithvale
wetland last Tuesday and looked over the fence from the platform in the
southern car-park, the hide being locked. I hadn't heard about the Glossy
Ibis from anyone else, so it was quite a thrill to see it poking around out in
the open as if it was nothing special. It was also interesting to see how
small it is, looking not much bigger in bulk than a nearby Masked Lapwing.
There were lots of Terns resting in the middle distance, but with no scope and a
fair bit of heat haze I could only assume they were Whiskered (at least
mostly).
I also saw Crested Pigeons (two pairs) at nearby
Braeside Prk the same day, and a further flock of at least seven at Warner
Reserve in Ashburton, about 12 km ESE of Melbourne CBD, on Friday evening.
There were lots of small Lorikeets at Hays Paddock in Kew on Saturday morning,
but in moderate light and with no binoculars (and a cricket match to umpire) I
couldn't confirm whether they were Purple-crowned or Little.
Just received the latest Australian Field
Ornithologist (formerly the Australian Bird Watcher). Great article on
Marbled/ Plumed Frogmouth. The birding highlight of the five week camping
trip I did with the family through southern Queensland/ north-eastern NSW in
September/ October 2001 was a dawn visit to the Hervey Bay Botanic Gardens,
where I heard and saw a Plumed Frogmouth, and heard at least a couple of others
calling from nearby. The most distinctive visual feature for me was the
long, forked tail, which shows clearly in the photos in the article. The
call, I remember, was quite weird - at first I thought I was trying to
track down a new (for me) pigeon of some sort, but the bill clapping at the end
of the half cooing, half gobbling call didn't seem quite right. I
unintentionally flushed the bird from the top of a palm tree and it settled high
in a huge Fig - not great light and partially obscured by foliage, but the long,
deeply forked tail and strange-shaped head - bigger tuft of feathers above a
smaller bill, compared to my experience with Tawny Frogmouths - were clearly
enough visible. And when I headed, at length, back to the car, there was
my first Channel-billed Cuckoo, shrieking and being hounded off the premises by
a mob of Noisy Miners. Not a bad start to the birding day!!
Regards to all - have a great Christmas and a safe,
happy and birdy New year.
Jack Krohn
|
