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.