Carnaby's and Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Project

Dear Friends in Conservation,

This summer has been a hive of activity in Perth with exciting projects for the Carnaby's Black Cockatoo.  In January, we completed our Summer Program under the strong rays of sunshine, engaging volunteers in a half day of educational activities across the metro area. Volunteers took part in dieback prevention, injecting species at St Emilie’s Primary School in Canning Vale.  This involved drilling small guide holes at intervals around the tree trunk and injecting phosphite into the holes.  Over 40% of Western Australia’s native plant species are susceptible to dieback, including banksias and jarrah which are important species for the Carnabys.  Injecting susceptible trees with phosphite can reduce the spread of the disease and control its impact.

During February, we visited Orange Grove Primary School and conducted a nesting box workshop with students.  A very special guest accompanied us, Simon Cherriman, B.Sc Hons (Env. Biol.), MSciComm (Nat. Hist. Film) who is an Environmental Biologist, Educator, Filmmaker, Wedge-tailed Eagle Specialist and a professional tree climber.  The whole school was involved in the morning’s presentation with Simon who inspired the students and shared with them the plight of the Carnabys Black Cockatoo.  The older students then spent the rest of the day constructing parrot and Carnabys nesting boxes, which were installed around the school by Simon.  Simon Cherriman shared his gratefulness “… for the opportunity to reach more children with (his) nest box work.”  Since the workshop, students have been outside every day, observing bird behaviour around the nesting boxes.   The students are recording all animal activity on a school website blog, and all observations are added to Simon’s database, including seeing a couple of Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo’s sitting on top of one of their nest boxes. 

This month saw the first Conservation Volunteers Australia Business Clean Up Day Challenge at Sir James Mitchell Park in South Perth.  This large park is in the middle of Perth’s inner city suburbia, and the melaleuca groves provide shaded spots for Carnabys to rest during their daily search for food and water.  Three separate teams competed to collect the most rubbish from this area, which by the end of the day totalled 116kg.  Rubbish collection is an important activity that protects our native fauna from unnecessary injury.  Some of the more unusual items found were a set of car keys, three passports and perfectly usable wooden chair.

Outside of these activities highlighted above, our volunteer teams have been regularly visiting an important site for the Carnabys Black Cockatoo.  Yanchep National Park is 40km to the north of Perth, and is home to many large flocks of Carnabys.  This area is also a key release site for rehabilitated Carnaby’s.  The Department of Parks and Wildlife in conjunction with Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre have released several flocks here.  Loch Mcness is the main water source within the national park, and has many creeks running into it.   One of these creeks was strangled with the weed ‘typha’, blocking water flow.  Teams have been working to remove the typha over the last few months.  Before they started, the water wasn’t even visible.  Now, we are happy to report, that this creek now once again carries fresh water back into Loch Mcness.  Carnabys have been seen drinking from the creek, and the project was deemed a huge success by the Parks and Wildlife Rangers.      

Conservation Volunteers Australia would like to thank our supporters and volunteers, for their ongoing support.  Without this support, we wouldn’t be able to make a difference to the future of the Carnaby’s and Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, and spread the important message on conserving these species.  If you are able to donate again, this will be greatly appreciated as every donation enables the continuation of such positive results, and gives these beautiful birds a better chance at coming back from the brink of extinction.

Links:

• Conservation Volunteers Australia website

Dear Friends in Conservation,

The weather is starting to heat up in Perth, and wildlife centres will start to see an increase in Carnaby’s Cookatoo numbers coming through their clinics. Climate change is having a severely negative impact on the survival rate of both juvenile and adult birds, with long hot summers and shorter and dryer winters limiting water sources and increasing the loss of trees, and the Carnaby’s access to food, shelter and nesting.

With the very real and present danger to the ongoing survival of the Carnaby’s Cookatoo , we at Conservation Volunteers Australia are happy to report the increase in the number of programs we are involved with, conserving the important Carnaby’s habitat within the Perth metro area.  Over the last three months these programs have included our community volunteers, indigenous conservation training program participants and Earth Assist school students, all thanks to your generous donations to this project through Global Giving.

Your donations have enabled us to send out 30 volunteers (three teams), spreading across the north, east and south metro areas of Perth.  These teams have been carefully collecting and processing seeds for propagation at several nurseries around Perth.  This ensures that endemic species are planted where they were originally found.  The teams have also been treating dieback affected trees, with some special TLC, and helping with flora and fauna surveys, in high profile sites for the Carnaby’s Cockatoo.

We are excited to have welcomed nearly 70 students over the past few months to key locations of Cockatoo habitat.  The students engaged first hand in learning more about the plight of the Carnaby’s Cockatoo and their important role in helping to maintain the future of this species.  These amazing student volunteers removed an astounding 4,600m² of noxious weeds at several key locations, including Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre, Kanyana Wildlife Centre, Perth Hills Discovery Centre and Piney Lakes Environment Centre.

Our community volunteers have been spending time at many important roosting and feeding sites around Pert, including Baigup Wetlands, Bibra Lake and Garungup Reserve.  In just the last three months we have welcomed  468 volunteers, who have donated their time and planted 7,658 native seedlings and removed a further  49,840m² of invasive weeds. 

Volunteer teams have also been spending one day a month at Lake Claremont, ensuring seedlings planted this past winter, receive adequate water to survive the harsh Australian summer, and increase their root systems to deeper water supplies.  The Friends of Lake Claremont are leading one of the largest ongoing restoration projects in Perth.  Coordinator Heidi stated, “We rely on help from people in the local and wider communities to implement our projects.  We have led thousands of volunteers over the past 5 years, planting over 250,000 native seedlings in and around Lake Claremont”.  Lake Claremont is part of an important green corridor that runs from Bold Park to Kings Park, nestled in the inner city suburbs, these small pockets of bushland provide important roosting and feeding sites for the Carnaby’s Cockatoo.

Conservation Volunteers Australia would like to sincerely thank our supporters and volunteers.  Without your support, CVA wouldn’t be able to make a difference to this important cause, as evidenced from the progress achieved these last three months, as support increases for this project, but we are not there yet… If you are able to donate again we would really appreciate it – every donation will help us to continue achieving these great conservation results and give these beautiful birds a better chance at coming back from the brink of extinction.  From all of us at Conservation Volunteers Australia we wish all of donors and supporters a very safe and happy Christmas, and a wonderful year to come in 2016.

Links:

• Conservation Volunteers Website