The last STGF count 2013

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gomer
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posted with permision from the stgf.About to be released in magazines the article below.

THE LAST COUNT

Dr Sarah Pryke

Sadly, the 2013 Gouldian Census will be our last. It is sad because it has become an iconic event, which as well as serving a critical function, has also been huge fun with many people turning up for it year after year, including many volunteers from various destinations overseas.

However, it is definitely not all sad news especially for the Gouldians. Indeed, this count is our last one because we have expanded our work over such a wide area now that we can no longer effectively use volunteers to census the birds manually. Instead, and excitingly, we will be trialling recent developments in satellite tracking, whereby birds will fitted with tiny sensors that record all their movements (via satellite). This technology will enable us, for the first time ever, to determine dispersal patterns of both adults and juveniles, the distances moved by individuals during the non-breeding season (i.e. their migratory phases) and also, importantly, their survival. Over the last years, both researchers and volunteers have been puzzled about a number of curious patterns from the census data. Why are there so few adults and so many juveniles? Where have all the unbanded birds come from? Where do all the banded birds go? Have they dispersed or died? This technology will now be able to answer these fundamental questions and provided unprecedented insight into the Gouldian finch. So, although we are sad that this will be our last count, we are also excited at the prospects of taking this new and innovative project into the future.

In conjunction with monitoring the movement and survival of the birds, we will also continue to work hard on increasing both the size and connectivity of Gouldian finch breeding populations. Our nest box programme, which started in 2008, has been incredibly successful with addressing this first objective. Indeed, in our first stage, we placed nest-boxes, which are specially designed to meet the specific requirements of the Gouldians, in their known breeding sites, and found a resulting population growth of between 130-380%.

In recent times we have initiated stage two, which is to use nest boxes as a reintroduction tool to reintroduce Gouldians back into suitable habitat that they used to be found in, but which they haven’t occupied for decades. Although this stage has only been going for the last couple of years, it is already proving a great success. Many of the areas have been colonised within a single breeding season, and thus the previously small and isolated populations are rapidly expanding over a much wider area.

Along with stage two, we are also embarking on stage three, which is to use nest-boxes as a management tool to restore and create suitable habitat in their increasingly disturbed habitats. Over the last year we have been working with private landowners, pastoralists, and mining and agricultural developments to use nest-boxes to offset land clearing and help promote and protect habitat for Gouldian finches.

Overall, we now have well over 2,500 nest boxes installed and in the last few years, have been steadily moving east, south and west from our home base of Wyndham. These boxes now cover hundreds of kilometres from our base site and this year, we are also setting a new site in Queensland, an area from which the Gouldian is thought to almost be extinct.

Therefore, while we have loved the count and would love to continue to with it, our work has extended so far that it is no longer a feasible exercise.

However, we would never have got this far without the help of our volunteers and so we would like to take this opportunity of giving you all a heartfelt thanks. We really appreciate all your time, energy and interest, and hope that you will continue to support us.

We would also like to take this opportunity of thanking all of you who have made a nest box donation. Without you, we could not have afforded to do Stage One never mind Stages Two and Three!

So, to all our count regulars, we look forward to seeing you once again on the 1st September and for those who have often thought of coming on the count ... THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!

Book in with David Myers NOW.
Keeper of Australian Grass Finches
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GregH
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Sarah and the SGF are to be congratulated on their work. Technology should capture some answers that episodic waterhole counts can't match but they won't engage the public so I hope the funding bodies don't rely on political pressure to feed projects like this. Just reading Sarah's report on the success of nesting box provision for the Gouldian breeding got me wondering. There appears to be a shortage of suitable nest-holes which will have causes we can look for:
1) Are suitable nest-holes less common now than 200 years go (the trees are still there and it can't be too hard to date the age of holes)
2) Are trees failing to recruit into a critical stage when holes are created
3) Are trees unable to from holes because the the termites and fungi responsible for cavity creation are absent
4) Are other species displacing the gouldians from thier nest-sites (long-tails shared the space with Gouldians OK until recently)

I imagine that the the current lack of nest holes is directly linked to land use changes since the cessation of traditional Aboriginal practices in Northern Australia. The most commonly cited change is to the frequency, intensity, timing and scale of application of burning as as tool. Certainly frequent burns will stop trees recruiting and getting to a size that can form cavities but there seems to be plenty of trees just not enough holes. The termites still swarm in the wet-season and the mounds are impressive so there are still plenty of them but are the mounds too impressive? The tree hollowing termites are different species to the grass-eating mound builders but all start out on the ground. If burnt hard and often termites won't be able to recruit and this is what I think is responsible as there seems to be a missing demographic to the termite mounds - there are all big and impressive. Where are the smaller, younger mounds? I've only been to northern Australia on flying visits to tourist sites so my view is limited to a few sites selected because they are impressive. Do we have members who visit or reside up there that could comment on this theory?
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gomer
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Grazing and non traditional fire lighting are the main cause i believe for the lack of trees.It takes 80 years to get trees that are able to be used for nest sites.Since white man and matches have been around, the juvenile trees have had little chance to become viable for nest sites.Long tails dont need hollow logs to nest in to thrive.SInce the extra artificial hollows have been introduced.The goulds have rapidly increased in numbers yet the longtails have remained at the same level in numbers.
Keeper of Australian Grass Finches
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