Thesis

My thesis is now available electronically from the library at the University of Western Australia. Happy reading.

Short films

Whilst undertaking field work for my PhD I took videos of the cockatoos whenever an opportunity arose to record interesting behaviours. I mostly tried to capture my study birds doing 'normal' cockatoo behaviours or wild birds doing unusual things. I have put together two short films from the videos. I hope you enjoy watching them.

Unusual Behaviours of Carnaby's Cockatoos

In the Wild: Rehabilitated Carnaby's Cockatoos

This film was too big for me to upload here but is available on Vimeo.

Talks

Now that my PhD is completed the next task is to share what I have found. That's what science is all about: building and sharing knowledge.

I will be giving two talks on the results of my PhD in the coming months.

The first is at Birdlife Western Australia's monthly meeting titled "Carnaby's cockatoo in the urban landscape: how they use the landscape and how we can help ensure they keep visiting". It will be at the Bold Park Eco Centre, Perry Lake Dr, Floreat at 7.30pm on the 26th October.

The second will be at the Australasian Wildlife Management Society Conference that is being held in Perth in November. The talk is titled "Working towards conserving a threatened species in an increasingly urbanised environment".

Graduation

Back on the 17th September I finally got to wear the gown and 'mortar board' complete with tassel to officially graduate. The evening was a fitting finale for my PhD journey.

PhinisheD

I handed in my thesis back in January for examination, waited patiently for the examiners reports to come back, and finally on the 8th July I submitted the corrected version of my thesis. Yippee!

In UWA tradition I am also now the proud owner of a famous red mug.

Rock star

The 2014 Great Cocky Count Report  was released in June and reports a concerning declining trend in both the number of Carnaby's cockatoos using roosts and the number of roosts occupied in the greater Perth region.

This has attracted quite a bit of attention including the following Podcast called How to Save a Rock Star from Extinction which you can listen to and hear Marc Wohling speaking with BirdLife Australia's Samantha Vine and Jess Lee.

Time is flying by

I know it has been a while since I last added a post to my blog. Time has really flown by this year!

I have been very busy entering, analysing and writing up the results of my project. In the last few months I have also been giving presentations at conferences.

Back in August I gave a presentation at the Combined Biological Sciences Meeting that was hosted at the University of Western Australia. My presentation was titled "Studying the spatial ecology of a highly mobile species using three complimentary techniques". As a huge bonus I was awarded the New Investigator Award for my presentation. The award will help me travel to another conference in the coming year to present the results of my study.

In September I presented at the Sustainable City Conference in Siena, Italy. The reason I was interested in this particular conference (apart from the amazing scenery of the location) was the opportunity to meet landscape planners, urban designers and architects. One of the keys to conserving Carnaby's cockatoo in Perth is going to be making the urban landscape as cockatoo friendly as possible and to do that we are going to need to make changes to how we design, develop and manage the urban landscape.

Certosa di Pontignano - Sustainable City 2014 conference

Certosa di Pontignano - Sustainable City 2014 conference

6th Great Cocky Count

The sixth Great Cocky Count (GCC), WA’s biggest survey for the endangered Carnaby’s Cockatoo, will be held on Sunday 6 April 2014. During this annual community-based survey, volunteers count Carnaby’s at night-time roost sites across the southwest of the state on a single night in April. The 2014 GCC will also count red-tailed black cockatoos.

A key aim of the GCC is to survey as many roost sites as possible. Your help is needed to make the 2014 GCC the biggest survey ever.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Register to monitor a roost site on Sunday 6 April 2014

Fill out the 2014 volunteer registration form to express your interest in conducting a roost count for the 2014 GCC (See below for contact details for the count coordinator to request a form). There are several hundred sites to monitor, so we need your help!

2. Report a roost site

Help us to identify more roost sites for both white-tailed and red-tailed black-cockatoos. Roosts are places where black-cockatoos rest at night. Important information on the location of critical roosting habitat is collected through the GCC, and is increasing with every GCC completed. If you know about a night-time roost site, please email or call the count coordinator.

3. Tell your friends and colleagues about the GCC

Use your networks to spread the word about the GCC. Facebook, Twitter, email, and word-of-mouth are all great ways to encourage people to get involved.

For more information about the GCC, or to tell us about a roost site for white-tailed or red-tailed black-cockies, contact Hugh Finn on 9287 2251 or 0400 177 615 or at greatcockycount@birdlife.org.au

The 2014 Great Cocky Count is funded by Perth Region NRM through the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program.

Turning science into public policy

I recently found out that I have been awarded a Wentworth Group Science Scholarship! I'll be going to Sydney in March to attend a Master Class where I will meet some of Australia's leading scientists.

The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists aim to incorporate more science into public policy, to drive innovation, and to implement solutions to improve the management of Australia's land, water, marine and coastal resources.

The entire purpose of my project has been to identify what it is that Carnaby's cockatoos need to survive in the urban landscape. The  next step is to ensure that those important elements are protected or enhanced through conservation strategies and public policy including urban planning and clearing application assessments. The scholarship will help me package the findings from my project so that they can be readily incorporated into public policy.

Cockatoo Christmas Cracker Jokes

Just because its Christmas, here are some really bad cockatoo related jokes...

Q. Why did the cockatoo perch on the clock?
A. Because she wanted to be on time
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Q. What do you call a parrot who is caught in the rain but has an umbrella?
A. Pollyunsaturated
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Q. What's orange and sounds like a parrot?
A. A carrot.
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Q: What do you call a parrot that flew away?
A: A polygon
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Three Carnaby's cockatoos are preening themselves energetically in a large cage - one at the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom. Which cockatoo owns the cage?

Answer: The cockatoo at the bottom owns the cage, because the other 2 cockatoos are on higher perches!
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Two Carnaby's cockatoos sitting on a perch. One says to the other - "Something smells fishy"
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A cockatoo waddles into a chemist and buys some lipstick. The clerk says 'Will that be cash or credit?"
The cockatoo says ' Just put it on by bill!'
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Polynesia: Memory loss in parrots
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I hope you are smiling even if there were groans exclaimed at some of those.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Banksia woodland

Banksia woodland is really important for Carnaby's cockatoos. The banksias, hakeas and other plants that make up the woodland provide nectar, seeds and grubs that are eaten by the cockatoos throughout the year.

The Banksia Woodlands of Perth's Swan Coastal Plain have recently been nominated as a Threatened Ecological Community under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Watch this video to learn more about them. The video was put together by the Urban Bushland Council.

Masters of the cockatoo universe

The cockatoos are busy raising chicks and have left me in peace in Perth to get acquainted with the tracking data and literature. There are lots of computer hours ahead of me now. It is all part of the PhD journey but I do envy those who have completed...

Two cockatoo researchers that recently completed their masters projects on cockatoos are:

Teagan Johnston - Food resource availability for Carnaby's cockatoo on the Swan Coastal Plain.

Christina Zdenek - Non-invasive techniques for identifying individual palm cockatoos.

Coomallo nest monitoring

I have spent the last week involved in monitoring Carnaby's cockatoo nest hollows at Coomallo north of Perth. The site is an important breeding area and has been studied since the 1960s. It was fantastic to be involved in such a long running study and to spend time with those involved who have such an intimate knowledge of the species. Discussions in the field and over a well earned drink and meal at the end of each day were always productive 'food for thought' and well timed for me at the end of the data collection phase of my project.

Carnaby's cockatoo chick about to be measured and leg banded

My main task was to determine if any hen flushed from its nest was banded and if so to photograph them. With the right camera gear and some patience it is possible to capture images that enable the numbers on the band to be read and the individual to be identified. An example is in the photo below.

Female "01790"

Every band is exciting because normally a 'band return' is only achieved when an individual is found dead. Most were banded as chicks so we know where they came from and how old they are too. The female in the photo is over 20 years old and returns to the same or nearby hollow each year to breed.

I didn't spot any of my study birds during the trip though. Maybe next time?

Lucky last

Purple F's tracking device sent it's last message to the Argos satellites yesterday. She is the last of my study birds fitted with tracking devices. It is now time for me to analyse the data and write up the results. Where do I start?!

Nice day to go flying

The weather was lovely yesterday. Sunny, not too hot, not too cold and only a few showers about. Purple F certainly thought it was perfect weather to go flying. She flew about 70km from night roost to night roost!

Ewww yuck!

Here's my favourite cockatoo pic at the moment. She really looks like she doesn't like the taste of marri seeds...tongue poking out, screwed up eye and holding the food away as though she can't stand being near it.

She is a very unusually marked young cockatoo too. Very prominent pale fringing to the feathers on her chest and very bold black stripes on her tail feathers. Quite an individual with personality.

Pink L sighted again

I was excited to spot Pink L grubbing in a jarrah tree with Blue G's flock today. It was good to see her looking happy, healthy and reintegrating into a wild flock. She has been out and about for almost  five months now. The battery of her tracking device failed at the beginning of May so I haven't been able to check on her for a while now. Her tail colour is very faded but you can still see the aerial from her tracking device.

A Tale of Two Cockatoos

Here is an animated video about Carnaby's and Baudin's cockatoos. It was devised by Gill Ainsworth, a PhD candidate who explored how the two species of cockatoo are valued differently by Australian society and why Carnaby's receives far more attention than Baudin's. Both species require urgent conservation efforts so the video is another way to help raise awareness of their plight.


To find out more about the video and Gill's research please visit A Tale of Two Cockatoos.

R and E, sitting in a tree

I spotted Green R and Green E perched together yesterday in a jarrah tree in Cloverdale. I photographed them whilst they were preening and reorganising their feathers after being drenched from the rain. They were with a flock of over 150 that flew from Bentley through Victoria Park and back following Tonkin and Leach Hwy.

Green T getting around

On Friday I was excited to spot Green T whilst I was following Green E's flock in Bayswater. He had travelled that day from Carine to meet up with Green E who had travelled from Bentley. These cockatoos can definitely get around!

They were feeding on liquid amber seeds near Eric Singleton Bird Sanctuary before they drank from a nearby stream. They like to drink just before flying to roost for the night. Usually they drink quite close to where they will roost but Green E and Green T flew all the way to Bentley which is almost 9km away 'as the cockatoo flies'. It took me over 30 minutes to drive what took them only a few minutes to fly - peak hour traffic and a river to cross via bridge doesn't help me to keep up at all!

The few minutes before sunset is magic for photographing Carnaby's cockatoos. They can be a tricky contrasty subject with their dark feathers and white cheeks and tail panels. In this portrait of Green T you can even see that he has brown eyes. He still has a light coloured bill but his eye ring is starting to turn pink so he is getting close to maturity. His tracking device has lasted an amazing 80 days so far which is double the expected battery life. Go Green T!