birding-aus

RFI Bell Miner site occupation

To: Birding-Aus Birding-Aus <>
Subject: RFI Bell Miner site occupation
From: Paul McDonald <>
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 17:46:02 +1000
Dear all, 

Despite many years of research, we still don't really understand how and why 
bell miners shift colonies when they do. They seem to hang around for years in 
the one spot, then all of a sudden the entire colony will pull up stumps and 
move a couple of kilometres. In some areas this happens every couple of years, 
in others a colony has been in place for decades. My group has been trying to 
look at better ways of modelling bell miner site occupancy and, as a result, 
subsequent factors that might influence their association with unhealthy 
patches of forest. One of the first things we'd need to make a sensible model 
is how long birds hang around a given site, and unfortunately we just don't 
know...

This is where I hope that the Birding Aus community might help out. Rather than 
spend the next ten years mapping and watching colonies come and go, I was 
hoping to collate records from others reports over the years. By putting them 
together in conjunction with other data such as the Birds Australia Atlas I and 
II, information from land holders and the like, a much larger database will be 
developed than if we try this as a small group from scratch. As such, we're 
putting in a call for interested people to send us records of bell miner colony 
locations. My Honours student Natasha Marshall is doing this as one of the 
requirements of her degree, so rather than clog up Birding Aus if you can email 
myself or her direct we can send interested folk an excel template of the sorts 
of data that we're after. 

Natasha's introductory email follows below, but if you have some relevant 
records and can take the time to dig them out we'd appreciate it. Hopefully 
we'll then be able to provide some information that is going to help improve 
the management of vegetation health in the long run. 

Many thanks, 
Paul 




My name is Natasha Marshall. I am Honours student at the University of New 
England and I am currently researching the habitat requirements and movements 
of Bell Miner (Manorina melanophrys) colonies. To achieve the largest sample 
size, I am looking to collate historical records from across the species 
distribution. I am seeking any information on the location of colonies, 
timeframe of occupancy and, if known, new locations colonies occupied after 
relocation (for example colony moved 1 kilometre downstream/south etc). 
Further, any information relating to the region occupied, such as the 
approximated area occupied by the colony, floristic composition or habitat 
structure of occupied areas would be greatly appreciated. However, records that 
are not able to provide all information are still valuable and would be 
appreciated.

I am happy to provide more details if you require, and would be happy to 
discuss this with you at your convenience.

Sincerely,

Natasha





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Dr Paul G. McDonald



Lecturer
Zoology, School of Environmental and Rural Sciences
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351
Australia

Ph: +612 6773 3317              Fax: +612 6773 3814

Publication list: http://publicationslist.org/paul.mcdonald
Thompson ISI Researcher ID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/A-5928-2010
Web: http://www.une.edu.au/staff/pmcdon21.php
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 

http://birding-aus.org
===============================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • RFI Bell Miner site occupation, Paul McDonald <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU