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In this issue

Bats
Waterwatch (Waterbug training)
Birds
New citizen science opportunity – western pygmy possums and bogong moths
Western pygmy possum workshop
Volunteer thank you celebration
SAMDB citizen science strategy
City of Port Adelaide Enfield and Australian Citizen Science Association SA Chapter event
 
National Science Week wrap-up

We celebrated National Science Week in fitting style this year with close to 80 citizen scientists and interested members of the public attending the MEGA Microbat, Mozzie and Movie Event in the lovely Murray Bridge Town Hall Theatre.

The results of the MEGA Murray-Darling Microbat project were presented, along with a very entertaining talk about the Mozzie Monitors project from Associate Professor Craig Williams from University of South Australia (who knew mozzies could be so interesting!). The Scinema films were an enjoyable end to the event. 

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Citizen Science awards for outstanding achievement; Ron Kelertas, Georgie Keynes, Brian and Penny Moon, Conservation and Wildlife Management SA Inc, North Calperum Volunteers, and Martin and Kerry Philcox. All winners had made significant contributions to the MEGA microbat project. The awards were presented by Ms Dianne Davidson AM, Presiding Member for the SA Murray-Darling Basin NRM Board and Board member Dr. Lian Jaensch. 

We were very impressed with the bat and mozzie costumes too.

   
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Bats

We are very pleased to present the results of the last two years of the MEGA Murray-Darling Microbat Project. This project was even more successful than we could have hoped for, with 3000 new microbat records contributed for the SAMDB region – that’s more records than had been collected in all the years since 1890! Thank you to everyone who was involved.

We found the best habitats for bats are tall forests and woodlands (average six species) and the Murray River corridor (average five species). These habitats offer roost sites in big old trees and have a variety of insects for food, and should be a priority for protection. The results also showed that thankfully bats are everywhere! Even modified landscapes like urban gardens, cropping paddocks and grazing land supported an average of four bat species. Everyone can help bats to flourish by protecting their habitat and keeping cats inside, especially at night.

For more information on the project and to read the results go here.

While the Inspiring Australia grant for this project has ended, we have the equipment and infrastructure to continue the project if anyone missed out on being involved or would like to do another bat survey on their property. We plan to run another large scale survey and full data analysis in five years’ time.

This successful model for citizen science bat surveys is also now ready to be promoted more widely. All of the forms and database templates are available for anyone else to use and full instructions have been put into a manual. We are also offering to loan out some of our Anabat Swifts for small scale projects. If anyone knows another region around Australia that might be interested in running the project please pass on our information or let Sylvia Clarke know.

Breaking news: This project, and in particular Aimee Linke from Mid Murray Landcare SA, has been listed as one of three finalists for the South Australian Landcare Partnership Award. Well done Aimee! The winner will be announced at the SA Landcare Conference in Bordertown at the end of October.

   
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Waterwatch (Waterbug training)

A 'new' Waterwatch group has been collecting water quality and flow information in the Marne Saunders catchment for the last two years.

This combined with historical Marne Saunders Waterwatch records and the results of two spring Waterbug Bioblitzes has been published in a catchment summary report. This is comprehensive baseline data that can be used to monitor the impacts of changes within the catchments, particularly change created by the use of low flow bypasses as part of the Flows for the Future Project. 

The report will be available on our website here in the next couple weeks. If you can’t wait that long, email Sylvia to request a copy.

Upcoming events:
Marne Saunders Waterbug Bioblitz
Tuesday 22 October 2019
time: 9:45 am to 4 pm
Keyneton Rec Grounds.

Angas Finniss Waterbug Bioblitz
Friday 8 November 2019
time: 9 am to 4 pm
Strathalbyn Natural Resource Centre.

Please email Sylvia Clarke know if you would like to attend either of these events.

A very new catchment group is also forming in the Bremer catchment in the Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges, with support from Goolwa to Wellington LAP. The catchment includes the towns of Mount Barker, Callington, Nairne, Woodchester, Harrogate and Langhorne Creek. It has a long history of being monitored by Waterwatch volunteers and it is very pleasing to see a new cohort of people taking up the challenge. It is an important time to be keeping an eye on the state of this waterway as many changes are occurring within this catchment. These include stormwater run-off from development, waste water management in the rapidly growing Mount Barker area, and the installation of low flow devices on dams through the Flows for the Future Project. 

Waterbug survey training was held on a rather wet day at Laratinga Wetlands on 4 September 2019 for landholders in the Bremer catchment, as part of the National Waterbug Blitz project.  We have a kit at the Mount Barker office if anyone would like to undertake their own survey and submit the data through the Waterbug App. There is also a kit available for loan at the Berri office.

If anyone would like to get involved in Bremer catchment Waterwatch please contact Jacqui Wilson at Goolwa to Wellington LAP on 8536 5600.

We have also been offered the opportunity to get involved in a national citizen science project; Pesticide Detectives. Managed through the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), volunteers will collect sediment samples from selected sites across Australia surrounded by different land uses such as urban development, horticulture and pasture. Some samples were taken in September and subsequent sampling rounds will occur in November/December and May. In return we will receive pesticide analyses for our waterways. If anyone is interested in getting involved for the next round and has a site in mind on any waterway, please contact Sylvia Clarke.

   
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Birds

The data from the old SAMDB community bird monitoring database is currently being transferred over to BioCollect and will be viewable again in the near future. 

While the community bird monitoring project is in hiatus, we have used this time to look at the last five years of data submitted through this project. It has included important current occurrence records of many common and also rare and threatened bird species for the region. We hope to revisit this project with another large scale survey in a few years’ time.

Full report is here.

Future opportunities for the community bird monitoring project are currently being explored. One suggestion resulting from the review is to track the distribution of a few key species where there is at least anecdotal evidence of them moving into (rainbow lorikeets, noisy miners) and disappearing from (New Holland honeyeaters) parts of the region. If you have any other ideas please let us know.

If anyone is interested in receiving training in the use of the Birdata database, please let Sylvia Clarke know and we can organise a series of workshops.

Upcoming events:
Bird Life Australia’s Backyard bird count is on again 21-27 October 2019

The Mount Barker Council and Birds SA Laratinga Bird Fair is on in Mount Barker, Sunday 27 October 2019 from 10 am to 4 pm. We will have a stall at the fair so come by and say hi.

Photo credit: Martin Stokes

   
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New citizen science opportunity – western pygmy possums and bogong moths

Who wouldn’t want to help save the mountain pygmy possum, with their big eyes, floppy ears and curly little tail?

Zoos Victoria think the declining number of mountain pygmy possums may be due to a decline in their favourite moths as a result of drought, pesticide use and the distraction of bright lights. Bogong moths migrate to Victoria over spring from a number of places including SA and we are asking the community to record when they see a bogong month through the new Moth Tracker website.

Bogong moths are quite easy to identify because of their distinctive wing patterns.

To learn more about this project go here.

Photo caption: Distinctive patterns on the bogong moth wings, image credit Donald Hobern

   
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Western pygmy possum workshop

More pygmy possums!

Join Mid Murray Landcare for a western pygmy possum workshop on Saturday 26 October 2019 from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm at the Bowhill Hall. Learn about the elusive and adorable possum and create habitat boxes to help increase their population in the mallee region.

RSVP here.

   
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Volunteer thank you celebration

The Mallee and Coorong NRM Group invite volunteers and their families along to Paiwalla Wetlands on Sunday 13 October 2019 to celebrate and thank volunteers for their passion, enthusiasm, time and effort to help achieve natural resources outcomes. RSVP to Miranda Leckie by 4 October 2019.

   
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SAMDB citizen science strategy

We are pleased to announce that the presentation about the SAMDB citizen science program at the SA Murray-Darling Basin NRM Board meeting was a huge success. The NRM Board were so happy with what we have achieved, with the help of all our citizen scientists, that they have asked us to write a five year strategy and plan for citizen science in the region. We’ll keep you informed of our progress and any upcoming opportunities to provide input.

   
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City of Port Adelaide Enfield and Australian Citizen Science Association SA Chapter event

Get to learn about citizen science and how it plays a critical role in shaping environment project outcomes at a local level. Come along and learn how you can become involved!

When: Tuesday 15 October

Where: City of Port Adelaide Enfield Town Hall, 32 Nile Street, Port Adelaide

Time: 6.30 pm - 9 pm

Cost: Free

Please register your participation here by COB 10 October 2019 for catering purposes.

Brought to you by City of Port Adelaide Enfield and Australian Citizen Science Association SA Chapter


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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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