Birding Aus followers,
As you may know Australia's Orange-bellied Parrot is ranked alongside the Giant
Panda and the Siberian Tiger as one of the rarest and most endangered animals
in the world. From autumn to winter, the entire population of this tiny 'grass
parrot' leaves its breeding grounds on the coasts of Western Tas to feed along
the coastline of Victoria and south east SA.
With the wild OBP population dwindling to below 50 individuals I'd like to
encourage you to get involved with this year's OBP winter surveys at the RAMSAR
listed Werribee Treatment Plant. We will be running two separate days at the
site on Saturday the 22nd and Sunday the 23rd of May commencing at 9:00am. If
you'd like to take part, please let me know your preference and I can then work
on organising site allocations and car-pooling if necessary.
There will also be opportunities for volunteers to get involved with counts in
several other regions across the OBP's wintering range (Murray Lakes/Coorong
SA, South-east SA, South-west VIC, Bellarine Peninsula VIC, Westernport/Bass
Coast). For more information on these surveys please contact the regional
coordinators listed on the Birds Australia's OBP site:
www.birdsaustralia.com.au/our-projects/volunteer-to-help-obps.html<http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/our-projects/volunteer-to-help-obps.html>
You can also keep up to date with the future winter counts on July 24-25 and
September 11-12.
For those of you interested in the latest topical measures being undertaken by
the OBP Recovery Team to conserve the species, please refer to the below
message from Recovery Team Communications Coordinator, Rachel Simms.
Rachel will be holding a series of workshops over the coming month to give
interested parties the opportunity to discuss the new Action Plan for the
species. These include Geelong (June 5th), Western Port (tba) and a Melbourne
session currently being earmarked for the week starting the 14th of June. This
session will likely be held at BA headquarters in the CBD with the option of a
weekday evening or the day of Saturday the 19th. To gauge which timeslot will
allow for the best attendance, please let me know your preferences.
Cheers,
Chris Purnell
Threatened Bird Network
Birds Australia
Suite 2-05, 60 Leicester St, Carlton VIC 3053
T (03) 9347 0757 - ext 233; F (03) 9347 9323
www.birdsaustralia.com.au
Hello all OBP volunteers,
You may have heard in the media that the OBP is not doing as well as we'd like.
Monitoring by volunteers and researchers at key sites indicates that there are
now only 50 wild Orange-bellied Parrots and that the species is likely to go
extinct in the wild in the next three to five years. There is a captive
population of around 160 birds; however the genetic variation (gene pool) of
these birds is too small for long-term survival of a healthy captive population.
Our goal is therefore to boost the genetic variation of the captive population
with the addition of more birds, caught from the wild population. In the longer
term, a genetically healthy captive population gives us the opportunity to
release more birds into the wild in the future.
Research suggests that many females in the wild are not breeding every year, so
not enough young are produced to replace birds that die. Fortunately almost all
females in captivity breed every year.
It is important to act urgently. The Recovery Team has recommended key actions
to respond to this situation over the next 18 months. The Commonwealth Minister
for Environment Protection has endorsed this plan, as has the Victorian, and
South Australian environment agencies. Owing to recent elections, the Tasmanian
environment agency is currently considering the plan and will brief their
incoming environment Minister as soon as practical. In the mean time, the
Tasmanian Government has already made progress on some vital actions in the
plan. The important actions for the next 18 months include:
Improving the genetic representation of the wild population in the captive
population, by bringing new 'founder' individuals in from the wild. Two new
birds have already been collected from Tasmania, with more captures anticipated
on the mainland this winter. However, the major target will be juveniles
produced in Tasmania next summer. A genetically healthy captive population is
important to allow for re-introductions into the wild in the future.
Attempting to improve the rate of breeding in the wild in the short term. This
will help us to capture suitable founders for the captive population. Key
activities are likely to include supplementary feeding, managing competition
for nest boxes, and continuing existing activities and implementing new
activities aimed at improving habitat quality.
Hundreds of volunteers have assisted the Recovery Team to monitor the
population, collect important ecological information, and restore habitats.
This work has contributed significantly to the success of the recovery program.
Because of the many hours of volunteer work we now understand how the
population is faring, and how we need to respond. We now have new priorities
and the help of volunteers is essential to implement our new urgent actions.
What this means for you:
Volunteer monitoring of winter populations is essential. We need to know where
the birds are so our new high priority winter actions can be achieved. In
addition, on-going monitoring is important so we can tell if our recovery
efforts are having an impact on the population.
Already, individual birds have been spotted at Lake Connewarre and the Western
Treatment Plant. This highlights the importance of doing opportunistic surveys
when you can, and not just limiting the search effort to count weekends.
Immediate notification of sightings is vital, even a day could mean a missed
chance to follow up on sightings. Please contact your Regional Coordinator
promptly if you find OBPs.
We will explain the current situation in more detail at regional workshops
(locations and dates to be confirmed).
The support of volunteers as always is highly valued and extremely important.
It is the quality of data collected by volunteers that helps us to be able to
detect this problem, which gives us a chance to respond to it. More information
will be presented to you at a regional workshop just before the winter survey
season. There will also be an article in the next issue of Trumped Up Corella
(due out soon).
This is the time for action, and as always, the efforts and dedication of our
valued volunteers will play a large part.
We will continue to keep you informed as new information comes to hand.
Thank you,
Rachel Sims
Communications Coordinator for the OBP Recovery Team
Chris Purnell
Threatened Bird Network
[cid:
Birds Australia
Suite 2-05, 60 Leicester St, Carlton VIC 3053
T (03) 9347 0757 - ext 233; F (03) 9347 9323
www.birdsaustralia.com.au
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
