Ground Dwelling Birds of French Island. Dr. Liz Znidersic, July 14th 2022 at Coolart Auditorium.
Presented by Friends of Coolart Homestead in conjunction with Parks Victoria.
Lewin’s Rail
Monitoring programmes are undertaken within the 60,000 hectares of land set aside as Ramsar protected.
Ground dwelling birds include Lewin’s Rail, bitterns and crakes. They are shy and secretive and it is difficult to monitor them by direct observation.
Acoustic monitoring can cover a wider area than video and is proving successful with advances in computer technology and data storage allowing huge amounts of data to be analysed.
The species specific sounds are represented on a coloured graph which monitors a whole 24 hour period so you can see at a glance which birds are active and when.
Results so far indicate various species are reproducing successfully and videos have confirmed new hatchlings.
Video monitoring also shows cat elimination programmes have been effective.
Next topic in the series:
The Powerful Owl by Dr Raylene Cooke. September 1st 6.30 – 8 pm
For bookings go to “Coolart Conversations”. Free
Ann Robb