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Clockwise from top left: superb blue wren, brown headed honeyeaters, young striated pardalotes, white naped honeyeater
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Birds come out to play over summer
A positive of all this hot weather has been the diversity of bird species frequenting the bird bath of our resident wildlife photographer extraordinaire Martin Stokes!
Some very interesting bird sightings have been submitted to the Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin bird database over summer. Special mentions go to:
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Rose who has become super proficient with the database and has been submitting sightings and beautiful photos on a regular basis
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Deb who contacted us with the unusual sighting of rainbow lorikeets in Renmark
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Ute who sighted an introduced spotted dove in Murray Bridge.
We love to receive information on unusual and interesting bird sightings (native as well as pest species) from across the region and can refer your questions to bird experts.
Contact katie.irvine@sa.gov.au if you have any questions about the bird program or database, or you would like to report an interesting sighting.
Thank you to all of the talented, dedicated birders who are contributing to the database. We would like to acknowledge the massive commitment of John G, Deb, Peter, John T, Jenny, Michael, Jacqui, Ute, Beverly, Harry, Ian and Dawn, who have submitted between 230 and 2200 records each!
These records are vital to providing publically accessible maps of the distribution of our bird species across the SA Murray-Darling Basin region and aid their conservation.
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Birders enjoying a day out at Tolderol Game Reserve
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Dates and locations for autumn bird surveys now available
Autumn bird surveys are fast approaching and we welcome you to join us. Click on the links below for more information or to book.
Sunday 8 April - Brookfield Conservation Park
Friday 13 April - Lawari Conservation Park
Thursday 19 April - Laratinga Wetlands (school holiday kids workshop)
Saturday 28 April - Tolderol Game Reserve
Friday 18 and Saturday 19 May – save the dates for the Riverland Bioblitz
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Image credit: Brown tree frog. Photo: Martin Stokes
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Frogs and how to submit their calls
Thank you to all of the Frog Spotters across the SA Murray-Darling Basin region and beyond. Please continue to submit your frog surveys to FrogWatch SA FrogSpotter app
By assisting with frog monitoring you can help us understand the health and distribution of our local frog species.
Contributing is easy. Just go to a water body of your choice during the early evening, login to your FrogSpotter app and record the frogs calling for 3-5 minutes.
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Image credit: Setting up a harp trap at the Murray Bridge introductory bat night, February 2018. Photo: Jo Clarke, EHMPCG
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Citizen scientists getting batty with us
The Mega Murray-Darling Microbat Project is now in full swing, with Anabats being loaned out, and bat call data being gathered across the region.
If you would like to join the project and collect microbat calls from within your backyard or bush block, please contact Sylvia at sylvia.clarke@sa.gov.au or your local Landcare or LAP office.
The more areas that we can cover across our large and diverse SA Murray-Darling Basin region, the better we will understand this under-studied, and fascinating group of mammals.
This summer/autumn, as part of the project, Landcare and Local Action Planning (LAP) organisations are running community bat nights in conjunction with bat experts. Bat nights are educational and a lot of fun, so come along and get involved.
New dates and locations are being added, for a listing of events click here and make sure you check back regularly.
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Fungi season is coming
FungiMap is Australia’s not for profit citizen science organisation dedicated to furthering the conservation and knowledge of Australian fungi.
The SA Murray-Darling Basin region will run workshops with Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher, Fungimap National Coordinator, in June 2018.
During the winter months there will be opportunities to become involved in fungi monitoring and contribute to scientific knowledge of fungi species and the critical roles they play in nature.
If you would like to register your interest in being contacted once dates are set please email nicola,barnes@sa.gov.au
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Image credit: Macroinvertebrate sampling training as part of the Waterbug Bioblitz, Angas River, Strathalbyn. Photo: Sherie Bain
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Get ready for the National Waterbug Blitz project
We organised a well-attended National Waterwatch Network meeting prior to the start of the Citizen Science conference, with representatives from almost all of the Australian states and territories in attendance.
The main topic of conversation was the new National Waterbug Blitz project and how to link each state and region’s ‘Waterwatch’ databases as part of the project. The national project will be launched spring 2018 with another visit to SA from Waterbug Expert John Gooderam, so watch this space!
Sally Maxwell and Katie Irvine also presented on the Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin Waterwatch project at the conference, which led to thought-provoking discussions about our Waterbug Bioblitz events. It was very interesting to see the differences between our Waterwatch program in South Australia where flow is an important parameter of ephemeral rivers and wetlands that often dry completely, and the large Waterwatch programs in the Eastern States run in continuously flowing systems.
With the help of local catchment groups and landholders, we have now conducted four Waterbug Bioblitzes in the Angas and Finniss River Catchments. We are analysing the data and will report back to you with our findings soon.
The first Marne River Catchment Bioblitz was run in November 2017 and went incredibly well. Thank you to everyone who was involved, particularly community members who volunteered their time to collect waterbugs in their streams and then ‘pick macroinvertebrate samples’ with aquatic ecologists Sally and Doug. Thank you also to the SA Murray-Darling Basin 'Flows for the Future' team who also got their waders on to collect and sort waterbugs on the day.
We will be in contact with catchment groups and individuals this autumn to organise formal and informal workshops to discuss the Waterwatch program, how to get involved in ongoing water sampling and Waterbug Bioblitzes.
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Image credit: Practitioners and participants symposium. Photo: Australian Citizen Science Association via Twitter
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Australian Citizen Science Conference
In early February the second Australian Citizen Science Conference was held in Adelaide. It was an inspiring event with presentations from participants and practitioners working on an amazing range of projects in Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Europe and Africa.
A highlight was the co-presentation by remarkable Greenways Wetland citizen scientist Ron with our own Sylvia Clarke as part of a symposium highlighting the many benefits to participants and their communities resulting from their involvement in citizen science.
The conference keynote speakers were fantastic and there was a large and enthusiastic audience for the public lecture. Keynote speaker Caren Cooper from North Carolina State University has published an excellent book called Citizen Science: How Ordinary People Are Changing the Face of Discovery for anyone looking for an uplifting introduction to the concept of citizen science, with examples of projects in which citizens are empowering themselves and getting involved in scientific discovery.
To find out more about the Australian Citizen Science Association and what they offer click here
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Wild Pollinator Count is on in April
Australia has around 2000 native bee species, all of which are important pollinators. We also know there are a couple of thousand butterfly, wasp, fly, moth, beetle, thrips and ant species, some of which are documented pollinators.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information on the ecology of many of these insects, what flowers they pollinate, or where they are found. We still need to do a lot of research to identify all our pollinator insect species, understand their ecology and how they are affected by human activities.
The Wild Pollinator Count gives you an opportunity to contribute to wild pollinator insect conservation in Australia.
Community members are invited to join the Wild Pollinator Count 8-15 April 2018 to count wild pollinators in their local environment and help build a database on wild pollinator activity.
For more information visit the Wild Pollinator Count website click here.
Image credit: Blue banded bee courtesy of Sarah Lemsing ala.org.au
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Share your experience
The Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin team is always interested in your stories and experiences. If you are willing to share your story in an upcoming edition of the Citizen Science eNewsletter, please contact us.
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