Birdwatchers -
Assistance sought for the Australian National
Waterhole Count
In recent years counting finches coming in to waterholes
to drink in the early hours of the morning has been highly
successful, and is a valuable tool in the conservation of some of
our most threatened species. Birds such as the Gouldian Finch
move vast distances each day and very often the only time to sight
(and particularly count) them is when they are drinking. This
behaviour is typical of many other species, particularly in the
drier parts of the Australian continent.
As a way of using this behaviour to our advantage, this
year will see the very first Australia wide “National
Waterhole Count”. All you need are a pair of binoculars, a
place where birds come to drink, and to be available count on
morning of the 11th October 2008. It doesn’t
matter if you count at the leaky tap in your backyard or a water
trough on the Canning Stock Route - the important thing will be to
count! We are hoping to have as many
volunteers as possible, and all data will be deposited with Birds
Australia as part of the national Altas of Australian Birds
database. The method is simple and a survey pack, complete with
data sheets and a description of the methods, is available by
contacting count coordinator Milton Lewis via email at: dalysium@iinet.net.au
Annual Black Throated Finch (BTF) Waterhole
Count
The BFT Recovery Team conduct a water hole count every year
- set for the weekend of 18 & 19 October 2008. The
obsevers must be in position by 0600hrs on Saturday and Sunday
mornings. If anyone wants to volunteer please contact
Rosemary Payet - BTF Recovery Team Secretary by email at
rosemaryp@westnet.com.au
North Queensland Quoll Seekers Network
Launched on May
31st in Townsville
Sea Turtle Biology & Conservation
29 th Symposium to be held in Brisbane in Feb 2009.
See www.turtlesbrisbane2009.org
Landcare has many volunteer working groups along the
Ross River. Volunteers in the community are trying to make a
difference to our local environment and major waterways by
re-establishing native vegetation and creating healthy
ecosystems.
If you are interested in joining any of the Coastal Dry Tropics
and Landcare Inc volunteer groups, download the information sheets
for the Bush Garden ,
Lou Lister
Park and Upper Ross
Landcare working groups. To find out more information for your area
contact Leigh O'Neil on 4721 4322/0428 428 542 or email landcare@bigpond.net.au So
come down and have a great time for just a couple hours a month. Do
as much or as little as you like: learning, helping and having
fun!
The
Nature of Northern Australia Natural values, ecological
processes and future prospects. Authors: John Woinarski, Brendan
Mackey, Henry Nix & Barry Traill. ANU E Press. $34.95 or it can
be downloaded free of charge from ANU EPRESS
Land For Wildlife
The winter 2007 edition of the
newsletter features two articles on butterflies: " Gardening for butterflies
...some basic principles and a Townsville case study " by Peter
Valentine, courtesy of the Societies for Growing Australian Plants,
and "Laying out the welcome mat for your local butterflies" by Anja
Bakker, Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, Kuranda.
For more detail, check out http://linus.socs.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/larvae.html
This site has information on biology, life history and behaviour of
hundreds of butterflies and links to more butterfly and caterpillar
identification and photographs.
Links and resources
Wildlife
Queensland e-bulletin and newsletter