New location for bird and bat data

The historical community bird data have been moved over to BioCollect and are now viewable and downloadable again. You can access the database here.

We will endeavour to run some training sessions on the use of Birdata for logging your bird surveys early in the New Year, while we continue to review where to take community bird monitoring in this region.

The historical bat data have also been added as a separate survey within the MEGA Murray-Darling Microbat Project database here.

Waterwatch and Waterbug Bioblitzes

We welcome a new cohort of Waterwatchers (and welcome back some past contributors) in the Bremer catchment. October and November 2019 sampling rounds have been completed and an extra sample was taken at some sites after a downpour to check for increased sediment loads. Due to the level of interest, we are running this a little differently from other catchments, with participants collecting water samples and dropping them into the Mt Barker or Strathalbyn offices for salinity and turbidity testing.

Two successful spring Waterbug Bioblitzes were held in the Marne and Saunders catchments and Angas and Finniss catchments. The Marne and Saunders rivers were very dry, while the Angas and Finniss rivers appeared to have fared much better this season. It will be interesting to see how their waterbug communities compare when we get the results back from the Australian Water Quality Centre.

Pesticide detectives

A round of sampling took place at various locations in the Eastern Mt Lofty Ranges and Riverland, and the sediment samples were sent off to Melbourne for testing. Results so far show that one of our sites in a new housing development tested positive for a fungicide.

We have another opportunity to send in more samples in February 2020 and again in April/ May 2020 if anyone else is interested. You can submit your suggested location here.

Many of us use products containing pesticides in our household to protect ourselves, our pets and our assets. To improve our understanding of pesticide use in households across Australia, the Pesticide Detectives team are conducting an anonymous survey

Results will be available on the Pesticide Detectives website where you can also learn more about pesticides. The data will be used to determine the impact of pesticides on the natural environment so that we can manage it better.

MEGA Murray-Darling Microbat Project

The technical report from this project has been sent to the Department for Environment and Water, Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Victoria and New South Wales. The report is also available on our bat monitoring page.

We were very pleased that Aimee Linke from Mid Murray Landcare SA was listed as a finalist for the Landcare partnerships award at the recent SA Landcare Conference for her role in this project.

Members of the project team are very excited to be heading to New Zealand in March next year to promote the results of this project to the bat fraternity at the 2020 Australasian Bat Society conference. We hope there will be a lot of interest in replicating this citizen science model across Australia.

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.