AGL gas terminal proposal in Western Port rejected
It was with a great feeling of joy that I heard the announcement that the government had rejected AGL’s plan to build a floating gas terminal at Crib Point. It is very pleasing that environmental issues have at last taken precedence over dubious economic ones. Western Port Bay is a Ramsar site, and it would have been extremely disappointing to see government ignoring their obligations under this treaty. This refusal is a tribute to the many thousands of people and organisations that have worked tirelessly over 3 years to ensure this decision. Another risk to the Eastern Curlew has been defeated!
My father, Ken Rogers, died in his sleep on 18th February. He was 81.
Dad made a very substantial contribution to Australian shorebird studies over the years. He was a regular participant in the VWSG field program in the 1980’s (along with the rest of the Rogers family). From 2003 to 2006 he was editor of Stilt, his period at the helm culminating in Stilt 50, a bumper edition (325 pages) which provided a broad (and sobering) overview of shorebird status throughout the flyway. It is still a very useful publication, and it played a role in the increasing emphasis on international shorebird conservation by the AWSG.
Dad’s greatest contribution was less visible. He was a statistical modeller in his working life, and he brought these skills to the Australasian shorebird scene at a time when shorebirds were not a focus of Australian academia. Analysing and publishing the already enormous datasets of the AWSG fell on the shoulders of amateurs, and it was a serious challenge in those days. Dad’s ability to design and carry out rigorous analyses made a huge difference. Moreover, he was very generous with his time, and great fun to work with. He wrote or co-authored quite a lot of papers in the 1990s and 2000’s. There were many more papers in which Dad’s work was done behind the scenes, helping others to get their work to publication standard.
Danny Rogers
February 26, 2021
Report on VWSG Cannon Netting Training Day
Our first ever VWSG training day was held at Yallock Creek on Sunday 21 February. The plan was to have small groups and give everyone some hands-on experience with every aspect of net setting with plenty of time to ask questions. We had nine willing participants and seven trainers.
The topics covered were:
Deciding where to set the net – last tide wrack line, weather predictions, high or low pressure and wave action, slope of beach, and presence of rocks;
Laying out the net – jump ropes, furling, pulling in the corners, markers, jiggler;
Cannons – loading cartridges, loading cannons, placing the cannons and setting the angle;
Wiring in – checking the circuit, checking the firing box, solving problems with the circuit;
Post-firing – setting up keeping cages, runners, shade cloth, bird bags, differences between small and large mesh nets, wet catches, etc.
Although the training took longer than expected everyone seemed to enjoy the day and felt they had learned a lot. We plan to run another session for less experienced members in the future.
Training day participants laying out the net. Photos supplied by Robyn Atkinson.
Please contact the Chair if you are interested in future training sessions.
Robyn Atkinson.
February 22, 2021
BirdMark is live!
The new BirdMark portal, which is specially designed to submit your resightings of colour marked waders along our flyway has gone live. This new site will significantly advance the capability for managing and reporting on leg flag sightings from around the flyway. Check it out!
February 22, 2021
The Overwintering Project: Westernport and the Wall of Wings!
The duo of Overwintering Project exhibitions, The Overwintering Project: Westernport and the Wall of Wings, will run concurrently at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and Oak Hill Gallery respectively, both on Melbourne’s beautiful Mornington Peninsula.
Both exhibitions begin on Saturday March 6 2021. The Overwintering Project: Westernport focusses on Melbourne’s Westernport Bay as internationally significant migratory shorebird habitat. The exhibition features 20 curated artists, 13 of whom have produced new work in a variety of media inspired by the local Westernport environment. Their work will be shown in conjunction with the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, a growing collection of 300+ original prints made by artists from Australia and New Zealand in response to the unique nature of their local migratory shorebird habitat.
Only an hour from Melbourne, Westernport is a unique and internationally significant wetland with incredibly rich biodiversity. Westernport’s uniqueness is recognized through its cultural identity as the land of the Bunurong / BoonWurrung people, the traditional custodians of these lands and waters, and its designation as a Ramsar site (or internationally significant wetland), a UN Biosphere and a BirdLife Australia Key Biodiversity Area. It is also party to three international migratory bird agreements, with Japan, the Republic of Korea and China.
December 09, 2020
Ruddy Turnstone wanderings
Maureen Christie and her intrepid team made a catch of Ruddy Turnstones in late October 2020 in which they retrieved 2 geolocators near Carpenter Rocks in South Australia.
The great news from these geolocators is that we have now retrieved six northward migration tracks from turnstone VAZ/ATZ – which had its first geo put on with the assistance of Newbery Park Primary School November 2013.
The second bird YUV has provided 5 northward migration tracks now which is almost as impressive as VAZ/ATZ! The geolocator light data from YUV also shows signs of incubation.
This is a remarkable effort for both the birds and banding team!
These are 2 fascinating and useful results in that they provide more information to assist in our longitudinal studies of an individual’s strategies over sequential years. To have these data for 5 and 6 years from these two birds is a great result. Thanks to the ongoing work of Maureen and the dedicated SE SA team for their efforts.
Juvenile Ruddy Turnstone WVC. Photo Sarah Campbell
November 18, 2020
On the Wings of a Godwit
You are invited to musical meditation to the ends of the earth and back…
Performances: 11am, 1pm, 3pm & 6pm, November 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28 29. Suggested Price: $15, tickets available here Duration: 20mins
‘On the Wings of a Godwit’ is a 20-minute, immersive, online guided meditation of music, birdsong and spoken word that takes the listener on a journey from the continental shores of Australasia to the tundra of Siberia. We invite you, the listener, to become a migratory bird, overwintering between your summer homes, following a flyway path that has been travelled for thousands of years.
Bird migration and colour marking webinar November 21
The Bombay Natural History Society in Mumbai is running a webinar on ‘Bird Migration and Colour Marking -Decoding Tagged Bird Sightings‘. Chris Hassell will be joining other shorebirds researchers to speak on how colour marking has been instrumental in understanding certain aspects of bird ecology and migration. You can find out more about flagging in the Central Asian Flyway and hear how to contribute to global studies on bird migration.
Date and time: Saturday, Nov 21, 2020, 11:30 AM – 01:00 PM, IST
The meeting had a fantastic array of speakers from different parts of the flyway, and a huge amount of new and exciting research and information was shared among participants.
A number of VWSG and AWSG members presented during this conference, about many great findings and achievements. There was also a fabulous plenary from Kate Gorringe-Smith on using art to engage, educate and inspire people about shorebirds.
Michelle Wille provided a excellent plenary speech on viruses in shorebirds. If you didn’t understand viruses before this talk, you would definitely know all about them after hearing this presentation!
Record-breaking Bar-tailed Godwit flight – 3MDR radio interview
Thursday 29th October at 18.00 hrs Melbourne time, Graham Beal will be talking to Adrian Riegen about the recent amazing record-breaking Bar-tailed Godwit flight on radio 3 mdr, 97.1fm and streaming, www.3mdr.com
