3 Bower Strategic Wildlife Surveys: Because Bower guests really care
NestBox project
Survey of local gang-gangs
Strategic wildlife survey
3 Bower Strategic Wildlife Surveys: Because Bower guests really care (Continued)
NestBox project
Hundreds of nesting boxes across the South Coast are helping local wildlife recover from the fires thanks to generous donations (including nest boxes built and supplied by ‘mens’ sheds) from up and down Australia’s east coast.
Since February 2020 we’ve been working with council and volunteer arborists to install the boxes, some of them providing shelter to wildlife within a week of installation.
3 Bower Strategic Wildlife Surveys: Because Bower guests really care (Continued)
Survey of local gang-gang population
Join in, collaborate and learn about a local gang-gang cockatoo nesting tube project – one of only two in Australia.
Gang-gang cockatoos are listed as an endangered species due to habitat loss.
The project is trialling ‘cockatubes’ to see if they might prove helpful in conserving one of Australia’s most iconic birds.
Project collaborator conservation scientist, Dr Susan Rhind, and our local council’s environment team are working together on this.
Here’s a summary of the early progress of a Gang-gang survey the team is participating in.
The latest August 2023 update is here Gang-gang project update Aug 2023
Including;
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- Where have our Gang-gangs been lately?
- Breeding season begins soon
- Feathers!
- Birdbaths
- Gang-gang talk at Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens (Aug 19th)
- Request for feathers for DNA project ACT.
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Also, a link to an ABC piece about another interesting story; Breeding success of Carnaby’s Cockatoo in WA, “Cockatubes in the Media”
3 Bower Strategic Wildlife Surveys: Because Bower guests really care (Continued)
Strategic wildlife survey being conducted by Eurobodalla’s environment group, Coastwatchers, with support from Bower guests
Bower Strategic Wildlife Survey
The questionnaire and iNaturalist project are part of a strategic wildlife survey conducted by Eurobodalla’s environment group Coastwatchers www.coastwatchers.org.au.
Coastwatchers plans to expand this survey over the coming few years, involving as many community members as possible.
Under a contract with Great Eastern Ranges (GER) the work is funded by Worldwide Fund for Nature-Australia (WWF).
You might have seen recent publicity about revegetation plantings on private properties and greater glider surveys. These are part of the same overarching project, sometimes called “WWF-GER Cores, Corridors and Koalas – South Coast”.
The questionnaire targets people living [or staying] in or near the bush.
It aims to collect local knowledge about wildlife presence and shifts in wildlife densities or locations over time (including pre- and post-2019/2020 wildfires where possible).
The iNaturalist component is to encourage local people to enjoy citizen science and contribute to an exciting digital database.
Check out the iNaturalist project at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/animals-of-the-eurobodalla-and-lower-shoalhaven.
Coastwatchers’ iNaturalist contractor will progressively analyse this project’s data, sifting out patterns amongst local wildlife, especially the threatened species mentioned in the questionnaire as being of special interest.
Ultimately, the results will tell us how local wildlife is faring, help its recovery (eg it’s one of the components of the Eurobodalla Koala Recovery Strategy) and guide us in selecting priority places for replanting, nest boxes and other rehabilitation or fire mitigation work.
More information about Great Eastern Ranges can be found on their website www.ger.org.au.
Sub-projects supported by Coastwatchers GER work can be followed at the Facebook page Team Quoll https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=team%20quoll and the Eurobodalla Koala Project website www.eurokoalas.com.
Eurobodalla Shire Council, Deua River Landcare, South East Local Land Services, Batemans Bay LALC Aboriginal Rangers, Campbell Page EcoCrews, Congo Community Association and Bingie Residents Association are all involved one way or another.
Coastwatchers have a parallel Bushfire Local Economic Recovery (BLERF) project, concentrating on wildlife-capable properties that are recovering from the 2019/2020 wildfire and/or building resilience for the next wildfire.