Latest news with #BirdlifeAustralia
ABC News
12 hours ago
- Climate
- ABC News
Hope for regent honeyeater with signs of booming blossoms after NSW rain and floods
A silver lining has emerged in the wake of record-breaking flooding across parts of New South Wales with signs the wet weather has created prime conditions for nectar-feeing birds, including the critically endangered regent honeyeater. There have been observations of a mass eucalypt budding event in the wake of the flooding across the Mid North Coast and Hunter regions. Mick Roderick, Birdlife Australia's regent honeyeater recovery adviser, said he had seen various eucalypt species thriving in the Hunter after their prolonged soaking during April and May. He said as the different species flowered the blossom season could last throughout the next year at least. It would provide food for the regent honeyeater, a species which has dropped to around 300 wild birds. "To know that so many trees will be flowering from a breeding season, right through summer and winter … is significant for a critically endangered species that relies almost exclusively on nectar," Mr Roderick said. "It provides the regent honeyeaters that are left with an opportunity to take advantage of those conditions and hopefully successfully breed. Mr Roderick said Birdlife Australia had recent evidence of hundreds of honeyeaters of various species and lorikeets feeding on the coast where swamp mahogany trees were flowering, while white box was flowering on the western slopes. He said many other eucalypts had been observed putting on buds in preparation for flowering. "The exciting thing is we seem to now have a mass budding of certain eucalypts, certainly in the Hunter Valley, and most of the buds have appeared after the really heavy rain," Mr Roderick said. "So we have red gums, ironbarks, grey gums, and then spotted gums to follow all these spring flowering gums. Mr Roderick said eucalypt blossoms typically dropped during drier years and it was the most promising blossom season in the region since heavy rainfall in 2021/'22. "We're going to have two exceptional seasons within four years of each other, which is pretty incredible," he said. Dean Nicolle, a consultant botanist and ecologist specialising in eucalypts, said there were more than 800 different eucalypt species throughout Australia and that certain species grew strongly in the wake of prolonged rainfall. "Some species are very tolerant of flooding and waterlogged soils and are much more drought sensitive, while other species are much more drought tolerant," he said. "The species described [in the Hunter], like spotted gums and ironbarks, are generally species of hillsides and ranges. "They would be responding to increased moisture in the soil, so conditions are good for growing. "They can take up as much water as they want, grow lots of leaves and then flower heavily." The budding eucalypts are also a welcome sight for apiarists, including Hunter Valley-based Colin Wilson who has been a commercial beekeeper for about 45 years. "In the Hunter Valley at the moment there's ironbark species putting buds on, spotted gum trees, grey gum trees, so there's a fair range of trees which will all flower at different stages," he said. "The last few years they have been below average in the amount of flowering and nectar and it's looking a lot more hopeful for the next 12 months. "Trees bud sometimes six months or more in advance before they flower. As a beekeeper you then know there'll be some honeyflows." Mr Wilson had to euthanase bees when varroa mite was detected in the region several years ago. "A lot of people around here have suffered quite a lot financially over the last few years because hives were euthanased," he said. "We brought bees back again when we were allowed to and have a growing process of expanding bee numbers. "When you can see a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel it does give you a bit of hope."
Perth Now
21-05-2025
- General
- Perth Now
Bid to save owls from rat bait poisoning
The City of Stirling has shown it gives a hoot by joining WA's growing 'owl-friendly' movement. Its council voted last month to become an owl-friendly city and has started to eliminate some rodent poisons from its operations and contracts. Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, or SAGR, are common off-the-shelf baits that contain powerful but slow-acting poisons that can take days to kill rodents that have ingested them. Your local paper, whenever you want it. The rodents become easy meals for pets or native species, such as owls, which can also be harmed or killed by the poison. A report at the April meeting said the city had received at least 20 unprompted requests to stop using SAGR. The city is now promoting the use of responsible rodent controls, including at food premises, commercial properties, building sites and at home. The change is expected to cost the city about an extra $6000 per year. 'It's well known that these rodent baits can be harmful to non-target species, including our pets and native wildlife,' mayor Mark Irwin said. 'This is a simple step the city can take to protect those animals and share the message with the community.' Information about owl-friendly rodent controls and what people can do to keep rodents away from their homes is available on the city's website. This includes using physical barriers to prevent rats entering, picking up fallen fruit and making aviaries rat-proof. The city aims to promote this educational material and its free rodent bait sample packs, as well as collaborate with Birdlife Australia and other local governments to support the owl-friendly movement.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Drivers warned after rare find on 'iconic' Aussie roundabout: 'Take care'
Much like many native species across Australia, bush stone-curlew populations have plummeted in recent decades due to major threats including habitat loss and predation by introduced species such as foxes and cats. While their numbers remain strong in certain parts of Queensland, the birds have all but vanished from southeastern states like NSW and Victoria. But this week, a rare glimmer of hope emerged on NSW's Mid North Coast, with a mating pair, and their tiny chick, spotted at an "iconic roundabout" in Crescent Head. A community social media page flagged the extraordinary sighting, urging drivers throughout the region to "take care on" the roads. "We have endangered species living here too," the post warned. Speaking to Yahoo News, Birdlife Australia's Sean Dooley asked the public to report sightings to help with critical conservation efforts. Dooley told Yahoo News the species is "pretty scarce" in NSW nowadays. "Especially along the coast once you get south of about Ballina," he told Yahoo. "There's still a tiny population on the Central Coast, and an occasional individual will turn up in places like Jervis Bay or the Far South Coast. It's a similar scenario across the divide. "In the west of the state, they are still scattered in the north and along the Darling [River] but very thin on the ground elsewhere. They are gone from southern Victoria and southeastern SA. "People could report any sightings to Birdlife NSW, or even better, lodge their sightings in Birdata so that these records can be included in long-term monitoring assessments by BirdLife Australia. EBird is another place people can lodge sightings that will also be picked up by researchers." Dooley said tragically, the birds were "once across most of the country". "It's always been thought that being ground-dwelling birds, they took a hammering from foxes and cats, but it seems to be much worse where there's been extensive land clearing," he said. 🚘 Warning to Aussie drivers after tiny roadside find 🐦 Rare creature spotted outside Aussie workplace 🚊 Incredible discovery centimetres from train tracks "Many populations survived into the '50s, '60s and '70s, despite the foxes, so it is likely the accumulated impacts of historical land clearing and the continued land clearing today were the final death blow. The tendency to 'tidy up' the woody debris in woodland blocks makes it impossible for them to survive. "Bizarrely though, they seem to be thriving around Brisbane, including in the CBD." Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Urgent plea to protect Aussie bird as numbers plummet to 'dangerous levels'
As one of the world's rarest birds migrates across Bass Strait, there are fears its northern homeland is being destroyed at a rate that could push it to extinction. With autumn setting in, Tasmania is cooling and the last surviving wild swift parrots are making their annual journey of up to 5,000km to Victoria, NSW and southern Queensland. Experts from Birdlife Australia and the Nature Conservation Council NSW are particularly concerned about the rate of native forest logging in NSW and they've suggested a simple solution to counter its impact on the swift parrot. With just 300 to 1,000 of these birds left on Earth, they've issued a joint request, urging the state to stop destroying critical habitat like flowering trees for feeding and old, hollow trees that provide shelter. Nature Conservation Council CEO Jacqui Mumford warned swift parrots are 'copping it from all sides' as trees are cut down across both Tasmania and NSW. 'Breeding and feeding grounds are being logged and numbers are falling to very dangerous levels. Make no mistake, extinction is almost certain if we don't act decisively,' she warned. Yahoo News contacted the offices of Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty about the warnings. While a direct response was not supplied, it's understood the Minns Government remains steadfastly committed to the timber industry. Related: Aussie state where future generations will only see iconic wildlife in zoos While the Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act is designed to safeguard endangered species from threats, including habitat destruction, state logging operations are exempt from these regulations. In NSW, the Environment Protection Authority has a separate suite of 'protections' called the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operation Approvals which contain regulations for logging around swift parrot feeding and roosting habitats. 'These include a 25-metre exclusion zone around every swift parrot roost, and a minimum retention of five nectar trees (for every hectare of net harvest area) in any compartment within 2km of a swift parrot record,' an EPA spokesperson told Yahoo. But some critics argue these rules are flawed because trees are only protected when a swift parrot is sighted, and the tiny 60-80 gram birds are near impossible to spot in the wild. They say even larger species like koala-sized greater gliders can be missed by the state logging agency Forestry Corporation of NSW, noting a 2024 report estimated just 1 per cent of the species' dens were identified in pre-logging surveys. Addressing concerns raised by conservationists about the swift parrot, Forestry Corporation told Yahoo it operates in a 'highly regulated environment' that delivers 'ecologically sustainable forest management'. Despite these assurances, Birdlife Australia argues ending native forest logging would be an important step towards ensuring the nation doesn't lose this bird. Less than 30 per cent of its foraging habitat remains and according to the Commonwealth, clearing of its habitat is a key driver of its demise. It's predicted the species will be extinct in the wild in the next 20 years. "The swift parrot needs the NSW government to protect its feeding range. Protecting native forests from logging would go a long way to achieving this," its nature campaigner Tarquin Moon said. Last year, the plight of the swift parrots received international attention with Hollywood actor Leonardo Dicaprio calling for an end to native forest logging across Australia. In a post to his 60 million Instagram followers, he said it was the "only way to protect the swift parrot and hundreds of other threatened Australian forest species". Australia is the only developed nation declared a deforestation hotspot, and the swift parrot is just one of more than 2,200 species listed by the Commonwealth as threatened with extinction. In November, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young appeared to have agreed on a plan to end native forest logging across the country, however the deal was ditched following an intervention from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
