Bitterns in Rice Project

It’s been a brilliant day. We’ve just had the pleasure of hosting the Threatened Species Commissioner, Gregory Andrews, as part of his tour of the Riverina that was organised by the new Landcare Irrigation Collective. In what was equal parts thrilling and a relief, we were able to show him bittern chicks. There was no better way to demonstrate what we’re on about and he was suitably impressed. This nest was found on January 15th, with only half the clutch laid, and hadn’t been checked since. There were no guarantees. Thankfully, four healthy chicks were found.

On January 22nd, we welcomed the announcement by Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, and Threatened Species Commissioner, Gregory Andrews, that the Australasian Bittern had been added to the national priority list for threatened birds. The list tops out at only 20 species and includes the likes of the Malleefowl, Southern Cassowary, Regent Honeyeater and Night Parrot.

In the rice fields of the NSW Riverina, there is so much that can be done to protect and enhance what is the world’s largest known breeding population of the Australasian Bittern. It remains a challenging and perplexing idea for many, but the marriage of farming and threatened species conservation, including the co-management of water, is central to our vision here at the Bitterns in Rice Project. Gregory could see why. He said he felt deeply privileged to find bittern chicks and kept thanking individual rice growers for being the custodians of one of the world’s most threatened birds. This recognition and sentiment was well received. Gregory did express concern about the potential impact from foxes and cats. If they do substantially impact on bittern breeding success, then it could be a key avenue for rice growers to boost their bittern yield in the future.

Threatened Species Commissioner, Gregory Andrews, with a bittern chick.

In other news, Robbie was recently photographed by Bob Green and Wayne Bigg at Pick Swamp in South Australia. He has since moved back to Long Swamp for yet another state border crossing. That’s nine now (NSW-VIC-SA-VIC-NSW-VIC-SA-VIC-SA-VIC), and the case for Bitterns Without Borders is stronger than ever. Meanwhile, Vin and Coly-Lion are doing as we’d expect, with movements concentrated on their booming territories.

Robbie is not alone. Photo by Bob Green.

Robbie in flight at Pick Swamp, January 24th, 2016. Photo by Wayne Bigg.

We’re thrilled after another successful morning in the rice around Coleambally. We caught and released ‘Coly-Lion’, our second booming male Australasian Bittern in as many days. He now carries a 16-gram solar powered satellite transmitter and is the third member of the Tracking Bunyip Birds crew, joining Vin from yesterday and Robbie from April at the end of last season.

During our crowdfunding campaign, the Coleambally Lions Club was one of the generous organisations to buy naming rights, and quite appropriately, one of the owners of this particular rice crop is called Colin and he first located Coly-Lion.

Inka, Andrew and I are now thinking we’ll save two of the remaining seven transmitters for booming males next season and shift our focus to females and fledged young. Ideally, we want an even sample of where the entire population (adult males and females, and youngsters) goes between rice seasons and the network of wetlands they rely on. That is our central question but along the way we’ll be learning a whole lot more and we’ll keep you posted.

In other news, last Friday we found our first nest for the season. With just two eggs, the female has probably laid two or three more since then. In about three weeks or so, we’ll have our first baby Bunyip Birds for the season, unless of course we find more advanced nests in the meantime. These are exciting times out in rice.

Below are recent photographs from some of our prey sampling work. There are staggering densities of endangered Southern Bell Frogs at some sites. The bittern chicks will be gorging themselves. And just this morning, while we were waiting for Coly-Lion to be trapped, we recorded many of the usual suspects like Great Egrets, Straw-necked Ibis and White-necked Herons, as well as some of the sneakier species like Baillon’s Crakes, Australian Spotted Crakes and a Buff-banded Rail. There were even a few Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, all the way from Russia.

And lastly, as 2015 was drawing to a close, one of our direct-drill (delayed permanent water) prey sampling sites was supporting over 800 Black-winged Stilts.