The Bird Emergency

Here is the audio of the recent live stream, in the Monday with Holly regular Monday spot, where Dr. Matt Herring talked about his current crowdfunding campaign, to raise about $70,000 dollars to attempt to track about a dozen of one of the least known, and rarest birds in Australia, the Australian Painted Snipe.

Please make a contribution to the campaign - https://chuffed.org/project/paintedsnipe

If you would like to check out the Bitterns In Rice project, just visit https://www.bitternsinrice.com.au/

Thanks to Leo and Patrick, two terrific photographers and friends of birds, who have shared their photos on Flickr. Go and visit their respective pages;

Leo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/0ystercatcher/

Patrick - https://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick_k59/

Visit the Birds In Backyards site for some inspiration for making your backyard great for birds.

If you want to see The Bird Emergency interviews as they happen, bookmark thebirdemergency.com/live

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency and we are beginning on Mastodon, because, you know, Elon.

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

If you want to see interviews before they make into into the podcast feed, check out the YouTube channel, where the interviews are usually posted first.

A year or so back I spoke with Dan Nugent about one of Australia's strangest and rarest birds, the Plains-wanderer, and the work that Dan was doing monitoring the birds in the grasslands of Victoria and New South Wales. (If you haven't heard that episode already, you can grab it here)

In this episode we will hear about current work monitoring a western population of the Plains-wanderer that occurs in the state of South Australia, with Saskia Gerhardy, from the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, at the University of Adelaide.

Saskia's work has been conducted alongside a project with Bush Heritage Australia, at Boolcoomatta Reserve, a property managed by this important conservation organisation. Bioacoustics are one of the major tools employed to monitor the very cryptic, nocturnal Plains-wanderer.

Here is a recent article from the Bush Heritage magazine, Bushtracks, about the work that is happening at Boolcoomatta and the Plains-wanderer.

If you want to follow the project with Saskia, and get updates, follow her on Instagram here. (@saskiagerhardy)

If you want to see The Bird Emergency interviews as they happen, bookmark thebirdemergency.com/live

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency and we are beginning on Mastodon, because, you know, Elon.

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

If you want to see interviews before they make into into the podcast feed, check out the YouTube channel, where the interviews are usually posted first.

Here is a bonus for you - audio of the live stream where Grant spoke with Dr. Michael Mulvaney about the (recently listed as Endangered) Gang-gang Cockatoo, and community efforts, by the Red Hill Regeneration Group in Canberra to assist it, as well as some interesting observations that have been collected via Citizen Science projects.

Grant and Michael were joined by Ellen Rykers, award winning science writer, from Forest and Bird in Aotearoa New Zealand about the BIrd Of The Year (which was announced on that morning!) Find out which species won the title, and a little more about it, and the work Forest And Bird does in New Zealand. There is also a nice association between Ellen and the Gang-gang Cockatoo.

Follow Ellen on Twitter here or check out her website.

Follow Forest And Bird on Twitter.

If you want to see The Bird Emergency interviews as they happen, bookmark thebirdemergency.com/live

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency and we are beginning on Mastodon, because, you know, Elon.

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

If you want to see interviews before they make into into the podcast feed, check out the YouTube channel, where the interviews are usually posted first.

Dr. David Watson, is an ornithologist, and Professor in Ecology in the school of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences at Charles Sturt University, in Albury in regional, New South Wales, Australia. David and post-Doc researcher, Elizabeth Znidersic have recently released a paper where they present a new approach for the resoration of habitat on the broad scale, acoustic restoration, where broadcasting soundscapes can entice animals to recolonise areas that have been disturbed, or suffered major impacts from events such as bushfires.

David shares his thoughts in this episode.

You can read the article in Ecology Letters here (open access)

Check out Dave on Twitter, and catch his fabulous reviews of his local birds, that he calls #AwesomeBirds..

Have a look at David's Google Scholar back-catalogue. Bit of a rock star!

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

If you want to see interviews before they make into into the podcast feed, check out the YouTube channel, where the interviews are usually posted first.

There is a new birder/birdwatching podcast on the scene, it's produced in Melbourne as well, and I am really excited that it's another avenue for people to discover the joy of getting to know birds, and to become a certified Bird Nerd!

I spoke with the host and producer of the show, Kirsty Costa, recently, and I am pleased to be able to introduce Kirsty to you in this bonus episode.

will let Kirsty's words describe her show, and her;

"Birdwatching is for everyone. Anyone of any age can go birdwatching, no matter where they live.

Weekend Birder is a podcast that shares the knowledge and skills of the Aussie birdwatching community. Discover how to identify birds, fun facts, where to go birdwatching and how to use equipment.

Episodes are short so that you can get out there and try out your new skills and knowledge."

"Kirsty Costa is a teacher, science communicator and conservationist.

During the week, Kirsty leads education for a science-based conservation organisation. On the weekends, you will find her hanging out in nature with her friends and family.

After a lifetime of loving wild birds, Kirsty started calling herself a "birder" in 2020. As part of her commitment to education and science, she interviews other birders so that everyone can enjoy birdwatching together."

I encourage you to visit The Weekend Birder podcast website, and find the best way for you to listen.

Check out the website here

Follow on Twitter here

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

For almost 30 years, ornithologist, Neil Hamilton has been caring for, working with and studying birds, and many of Australia's unique animals.

Beginning as teenager at Tooronga Zoo, Neil has gone on to senior keeper positions at Perth Zoo, and moved on to practical conservation work and research with the WA government.

Neil has devoted much of his time in recent years studying the elusive Ghost Bird of the Australian Outback, the Night Parrot, listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, with perhaps as few as 200 mature individuals existing out there in the dry spinifex plains of the Western Australian desert.

In this episode, Neil talks about his career working to understand and protect birds, and organising teams of Ghost Bird volunteers to seek out the Night Parrot on regular survey trips.

Follow Neil on Twitter to keep up to date with what he and the team are up to.

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

This bonus episode is the audio from the live stream recently conducted with Robert Ashworth, A Masters student at Melbourne University. Robert is running a Citizen Science project about known nesting sites and hollows used by the Australian grass-parrot, the Red-rumped Parrot (Psephotus haematonotus). Robert is looking for you to report any instance you know of Red-rumps using a hollow for nesting, no matter when you witnessed it!

To get involved with Robert's Red-rump project, Rumpuary, follow this easy link - thebirdemergency.com/redrumps

Contact Robert on social media;

Twitter - @robdashworth

Instagram - @r_ashworth97

You can find the full live stream video of this episode at thebirdemergency.com/robashworth

Remember to Subscribe to the YouTube channel - it helps out a lot!

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

Here is the Fotography Friday conversation that Grant and Nicolas Rakotopare had with Sandy Horne, recounting her introduction to photography, and bird photography in particular.

The photographs discussed are on this webpage and also check out Sandy's Flickr albums.

Follow Sandy on Twitter @SandyHorne61

Don't forget to have a look at Nico's pics...

You can find some really lovely shots from Nicolas on his website, not limited to his work with birds at lerako.net

Follow Nicolas on Twitter - @le_rako

And still more great images from Nicolas on Instagram @lerako

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

Another Bonus episode - the audio of a live stream where Grant Williams and Dr. Holly Parsons suggest some plants they like to use in a bird and wildlife-friendly garden, and give some design tips.

Grant draws upon his knowledge as a horticulturist to suggest an approach to structure, and to suggest a few plants from each category that he suggests using stratification as a major design principle - thinking like a bird!

Holly draws upon her experince with the Birds In Backyards program to add more useful species suggestions.

If you are designing or improving a bird-friendly garden, listening to this episode will be time well spent.

You can find the video of this episode at thebirdemergency.com/YouTube

Follow The Bird Emergency on Twitter @birdemergency or Instagram @thebirdemergency

You can support the show by making a contribution by buying Grant a coffee here - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/birdemergency

If you enjoy the show, how about share with your friends or colleagues? https://followthepodcast.com/birdemergency

Or you can review us at https://lovethepodcast.com/birdemergency

Image credit - MainlandQuokka, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons