1. Case study: Night Parrot surveys and management at Lorna Glen
Allan Burbidge and Neil Hamilton

2. History In district, from 1896 - Keartland at Lake Carnegie
Others eg Glen Ayle in 1970s
Possible sightings in district mid-late 2009
Lorna Glen: Neil Hamilton & Mike Onus Dec 2009

3. Response Immediate response :
Searched for an hour with head torches, spotlight and night ‘scope
Details of sighting recorded that night
Motion sensitive cameras next morning
Senior staff notified, but sighting not advertised; action plan developed
No further disturbance until mist nets arrived from Perth& staff from Kalgoorlie

4. Follow up
Feb 2010, Jun/Jul 2010, Oct 2010, Nov 2011, May 2013, and opportunistic
Mist-netting, trapping with drift net, audio recorders, camera traps, spotlighting, night ‘scopes, call broadcast, nest inspections, searching for signs in caves & near water, etc
Focus on people with skills & experience with WGP research and searching for NPs
Equipment and teams ready for follow-up

5. ARUs – autonomous recording units

6. 2010 recordings

7. ARUs – results to date >20 bird species detected
No Night Parrot calls detected
Still plenty of files to be looked at (1000’s of hours)
Difficult without reference calls

8. Motion sensitive cameras
>1000 camera nights,
- some with call broadcast
- some at natural or artificial water points

9. Is there a Night Parrot in here?
Lorna
Glen
Pilbara 2005
Time consuming to process Pick locations carefully

10. Mist-netting
1000’s of mist-net hours

11. Drift nets and traps

12. Looking for likely habitat

13. Signs eg feathers, tracks, nests

14. Feeding sign
Note:
parrots cut stems diagonally, but so do rodents (and grasshoppers?)
fresh signs ephemeral
Mulga Parrot
Unknown herbivore

15. Example: November 2011 survey
11 skilled personnel
Net hours
1023
birds 77
bats 29
rodents 2
>300 km spotlighting
>17 nests searched
ca 20 hours area searches

16. Why continue at Lorna Glen
Historical records
Introduced predator management (trapping, baiting) since 2003 – cats, foxes, dogs

17. Introduced herbivore management
– stock removal 2000 onwards
– removal of artificial water sources
– shooting camels
– fencing to reduce entry of camels & cattle

18. Habitat Management Some very old Triodia (>50 years post fire)
Fire management plan* in place
Resident caretaker and visiting researchers
* Burrows, N., and Butler, R. (2011). 'A Fire Management Plan for Lorna Glen (Matuwa) and Earaheedy (Karara Karara) ' Department of Environment and Conservation, Perth.

19. Conclusions Four years on ….. Surveys have continued
Appropriate on-going management in place
Funding always an issue (remote location) (but thanks for support from DPaW region)
Efforts limited by lack of knowledge concerning most appropriate survey techniques
Still looking …..

20. Acoustic surveys
Boucher, N. J., Burbidge, A. H. and Jinnai, M Computer recognition of sounds that have never been heard before. 18th National Australian Institute of Physics Conference, Adelaide.
Boucher, N. J The SoundID autonomous sound recorder. AudioWings 12: 8-11.