News
Ntaria Junior Rangers
The Land for Wildlife coordinator, Caragh, made the trip to Ntaria / Hermannsburg to help with the Junior Ranger program. With the assistance of the Tjuwanpa Women’s Rangers and Gerard Lessels, LfW helped the Ntaria Junior Rangers understand birds’ nests. The Junior Rangers learned about bird nest design, material use, nest shape and the consequences
Green Army: Feral Animal Trapping Workshop
Land for Wildlife were invited to run a workshop this morning for the new Green Army team at Olive Pink Botanic Garden (OPBG) in Alice Springs, to provide training and support for the six months of Feral Cat and Spotted Turtle-dove trapping. The Green Army team are hosted through OPBG (a historic, well-established and active
Domestic Cat Responsible Ownership
There’s a lot of talk about domestic cats on the Alice Springs Community Forum this week, where residents are voicing their opinions regarding domestic cats that are roaming into neighbouring yards. Roaming domestic cats have the ability to spray, defecate or fight on neighbouring properties, spread disease or contract disease via other cats, run the
Keep an Eye to the Sky – Galahs in Ciccone
Ciccone seems to be the place to be for Galahs (Eolophus roseicapillus) this week! Huge numbers were seen resting on power lines over the last few days. Galahs exhibit flocking behaviour and congregate at communal roost sites, frequently establishing near regular watering points and food sources; and with populations increasing markedly following successful young rearing.
Keep an Eye to the Sky – Channel-billed Cuckoo
The Channel-billed Cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae) is the largest parasitic cuckoo in the world. Unlike many other cuckoos, the chicks do not evict the host’s young from the nest, but rather grow faster and demand all the food. It lays its eggs in the nests of the Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) and members of the crow family
Cat Trapping Tips and Tricks
Feral cats have contributed to the disappearance of many ground dwelling birds and mammals in the arid zone and continue to threaten the success of recovery programs for endangered species. As a result, they are listed as a key threatening process under the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999. Trapping for cats may be more successful in
Art Competition – International Day for Biological Diversity
The International Day for Biological Diversity takes place on Sunday May 22 2016. Established by the United Nations, the day aims to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. The theme for 2016 is ‘Mainstreaming Biodiversity; Sustaining People and their Livelihoods’. “Biodiversity is the foundation for life and for the essential services provided by ecosystems.
Ntaria Junior Rangers
I discovered a new perk to being the Land for Wildlife Coordinator – I get to be involved with the Ntaria Junior Ranger Program! I made the journey out to meet the kids yesterday, which was a riot of fun! I joined them as they learned about Dingos (Canis lupus dingo), drew some of their
Keep an Eye to the Sky
After a couple of days of overcast weather, the skies have parted again and the birds are rejoicing. The Red-tailed Black Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii) were out in force at the office of Land for Wildlife this morning – screeching and parading around. Not surprising that they are active given their breeding season is a couple
The structural and thermal properties of avian cup-shaped nests
Rangeland Biology and Ecology Seminars April 29, Friday, 3.30pm at Charles Darwin University, Lecture Theatre HE, Alice Springs * The structural and thermal properties of avian cup-shaped nests Dr Caragh Heenan Land for Wildlife Coordinator, Low Ecological Services P/L, Alice Springs Incubation in birds is energetically demanding and the energy invested to maintain egg temperature
Native Plant Sale at Olive Pink Botanic Garden
The Land for Wildlife and Garden for Wildlife team were at the Australian Plant Society Sale at Olive Pink Botanic Garden on the weekend – what a flurry of plant buying activity! Thanks to everyone that came over to say hi or express interest in joining up and good luck growing the little native beauties
Introducing the new Land for Wildlife coordinator
Good afternoon Land for Wildlife and Garden for Wildlife crew! Time to introduce myself… I’m Caragh, the new Land for Wildlife coordinator! I join the team here at Low Ecological Services with a background in ecology and zoology and a few other ‘ologies’ from my time in Adelaide. I am a lover of birds (but
June newsletter
Continuing to focus on feral cat awareness and monitoring, the Land for Wildlife team were at various events this month talking all things cats and scats. We explore the options for monitoring and collecting data in the field and share some inspirational clips to keep you motivated about contributing to urban and rural nature corridors
May newsletter
The Land for Wildlife team have been working with rangers from the Batchelor Institute to facilitate feral cat monitoring and management at the Desert Knowledge Precinct. We have also just begun monitoring for feral cats on some urban GfW and LfW properties in Alice Springs. We take a closer look at the effects of long-term
April Newsletter
— by Bill Low
We have been busy this month working with Ntaria Junior Rangers and Tjuwanpa Women Rangers along with conducting land assessments at Greatorex Rd, Ilparpa and Narwietooma Station. We were lucky enough to be invited to celebrate the anniversary of Olive Pink Botanical Garden and visit Conlan’s Lagoon. Perenties play at the Purdie’s place and Territory
Spring – The Perfect Season for Dove Control
A steady trickle of feral Spotted Turtle Dove trapping records continues to make its way to the Land for Wildlife office. It’s pleasing to see that the community is continuing to target this avian invader. Recent figures include 50 trapped for the year thus far from a Garden for Wildlife member in Eastside and 37 in
Survey 2012 – Biodiversity on Land for Wildlife Properties
Hi there Land for Wildlifers. Well, it’s been a while since our last post, with a busy field season taking up most of coordinators’ time over the past few months. LfW has been recording a few milestones in Alice Springs however, with a third coordinator, Matt Digby, taken on to help ease the work load
Publishing Opportunity: A call for contributions from the Northern Territory Naturalist
A request has come down from the Top End for a greater contribution of natural history literature from Central Australia. While Alice Springs probably punches well above its weight in publication in a variety of journals, apparently we are not well represented in Northern Territory Naturalist. We thought we should put out the call to
Centralian Rainbow Spider?
No not really. Local arachnid expert Robbie Henderson has been kind enough to identify this spider for us as the Black House Spider Badumna insignis. This is a common spider around Alice Springs. It is a smallish spider which grows to a total legspan of about 3cms. I asked Robbie to identify this one for us
BUFFEL FREE ZONE – SHORT-TERM PAIN FOR LONG-TERM GAIN!
A Guest Member Post from Buffel Free Champion, Debbie Page. In 2000 when our family relocated from basic residential living in Alice Springs to Heenan Road, our main goal was to put some ‘space’ between our neighbours and our family of four young boys. Initially, our 5 acre property was quite desolate but with a