The unexpected …

Over the course of the project we have been monitoring fauna on each of the sites using bird surveys, motion-sensor camera deployments and nest box inspections, in order to obtain base-line data for future comparison. The surveys regularly turn up the expected common birds – magpies, Galahs, Crimson Rosellas, Superb Fairy-wrens, Brown Thornbills, Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, Grey Fantails, etc., and the cameras are full of shots of kangaroos and wombats – as well as foxes and deer! It could become all a bit ho-hum if it weren’t for the enjoyment of wandering the hills of the King Parrot catchment looking for birds, and also, just once in a while, the excitement of an unexpected rare species popping up!
In the case of birds, the surprises have come from a pair of Spotted Quail-thrush in ‘Hidden Valley’ (Site 4), and, most recently, a group of Southern Whiteface on the edge of one of the new sites added this year (see more details on Focus on Fauna). With mammals the Long-nosed Bandicoot (again in ‘Hidden Valley’) was unexpected, as was the frequency of occurrence of the threatened Brush-tailed Phascogale, which has so far been recorded on four of the project properties, including two of the new sites. A highlight early on in the project was of course the finding of an endangered Striped Legless Lizard on the Granters’ property (Site 5).

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Caught on camera

We have recently followed up sightings of uncommon fauna such as Spotted Quail-thrush and Long-nosed Bandicoot at the ‘Hidden Valley’ site with remote surveillance camera placements. The cameras failed to record quail-thrush, but did show up a bandicoot and a range of other wildlife, including Black Wallaby, Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Short-beaked Echidna, Common Wombat, Brushtail Possum and White-winged Chough, as well as the introduced pests Red Fox, feral Cat and Sambar. (Click on any of the photos below for a closer look.)

Long-nosed Bandicoot

Black Wallaby

Eastern Grey Kangaroo with joey

Common Brushtail Possum

Recent bird sightings at ‘Hidden Valley’ include Peregrine Falcon, Common Bronzewing, Flame Robin (they love using the tree guard stakes as perches), Weebill, White-naped Honeyeater and Grey Butcherbird, which takes the running total of species to 48. This total is bound to rise when intensive surveys are undertaken later in the year.

Remote camera results

Mountain Brushtail Possum at Watsons’ site

Over the past few months, the Upper Goulburn Landcare Network’s Focus on Fauna team has been installing remote motion-sensing cameras to record wildlife at each of the Biodiversity Project sites . This was an attempt to establish some baseline data for future comparison so as to gauge the effects of the project’s revegetation and habitat protection works.