Our coastline acts as a high-traffic international runway for rare migratory travellers alongside an extraordinary range of native species. Join BirdLife Shoalhaven president Phil Hendry for a hands-on day of citizen science, conservation, and field insights, at the Bird Haven Festival on 19 September.
There couldn’t be a better time to improve your knowledge and appreciation of our feathered friends than right now, with the wellbeing and long-term survival of birds in the spotlight, BirdLife Shoalhaven is preparing for their second Bird Haven Festival with an impressive all-day program at Shoalhaven Heads.
The area, one of the South Coast’s most significant habitats for migratory sea birds, shore birds and bird watchers, hosts many species who are starting to return from their breeding season in the northern hemisphere.
Birdlife Shoalhaven president Phil Hendry says, “The birds we see there, the curlews and godwits and those sorts of birds that breed in Siberia, Alaska, Japan, in our winter, come back and rest up in places like Shoalhaven Heads, anywhere where there are good, safe mud flats along the coast. They’re making their way back at the moment, there’s always a great diversity of birds on the sandy flats.”
The Festival starts with a 1.5km walk along the International Bird Runway, which Phil says is a good walk compared to other similar locations which are much muddier and not so great for walkers.
“We will take telescopes out with us as well as binoculars,” Phil explains. “With shorebirds it’s difficult because there’s no shelter or trees and it’s best not to try and get too close to them. We’ll walk out onto the sand flats and do a loop, looking at the birds and making a record of them, making sure that everybody gets a chance to see them.”
Tech Boosts Bird Data Capture
The citizen science element of the festival, and of bird watching in general, has been the primary method of data collection about birds for a long time, but new techniques being presented at the Festival may soon take the humans out of the equation.
“David Watson from Albury is coming to talk, he’s developing new methods for bird surveys that are more comprehensive,” says Phil. “So we’re all very much wedded to the idea that humans go out, 20 minutes at a time and count the number of birds they see, whereas his approach is trying to be more comprehensive and thorough by putting out remote sensors, microphones essentially, so you can record every sound and then use computers to identify the species and count them.
“Instead of relying on a bird turning up when there’s a person nearby to count it, you can [cover] the area that you want with microphones and get a very comprehensive record of what is there and how many of them and so on.”
Professor Watson from Charles Sturt University is presenting “The power of machine-based monitoring to survey birds at scale”, including case studies from the Australian Acoustic Observatory, the Bush Bird Classifier and other collaborations, he will share what is now possible with acoustic monitoring.
The Call of Bird Watching
Speaking of bird song, Phil says it sneaks up on you, this pastime that can quickly escalate from being “good with kookaburras and magpies” to a much-more serious, organised activity that can make real contributions to the conservation of birds and their habitats.
It’s these people, the citizen scientists who can identify 10 species of bird before they even get out of the car, the people who regularly upload their bird counts to the national database and those who infectiously share their passion for all things avian with their nearest and dearest, who will be flocking to the Bird Haven Festival next month.
“Celebration, education and conservation” are the aims of the Festival, says Phil, who was a CSIRO scientist before moving to Ulladulla and spending more and more time in pursuit of feathered co-habitants.
Also presenting on the day will be seabird researcher Penny Beaver, an associate research fellow at Deakin University, and raptor specialist Dr Flossy Sperring whose research is focused on endemic species of Norfolk and Christmas Islands.
Bird Flu Presentation
Of course, any bird event right now includes a focus on H5N1, or bird flu, which has made its way to our shores and threatens more than birds.
Phil says the Office of the Threatened Species Commissioner will be in attendance. “The talk will reflect what’s happening on the ground at the moment,” Phil says, “It will be a very important part of the day.”
Become a Bird Noticer
Bird watching starts simply, says Phil, by being aware. “Even if you don’t know the name of it, you can say, that’s a different looking bird, I wonder what it is.”
Friends of his wear pins on their hats that say, “I’m a bird noticer” and now, Shoalhaven Libraries are offering bird watching kits as part of their borrowing systems for library members.
Phil says there are almost 400 bird species on the list maintained by BirdLife Shoalhaven, of birds that have been recorded here in our region, which is a long and diverse list. “We are one of the most species-rich areas for birds in Australia,” he says. “There are probably 200 you could hope to see every time you come here, and there are maybe 750 you could ever hope to see in all of Australia, which when you think about it, is an amazing array.”
BirdLife Shoalhaven publishes a quarterly magazine about their activities and adventures, which is available via their website, along with more information about how you can get involved with the organisation.
Tickets Online
A day pass to the event, which is taking place at the Shoalhaven Heads Bowling Club on Saturday 19 September, is $50 +bf and includes lunch and refreshments. Phil says around 1/3 of the tickets have already sold, with passionate birders coming from around the state and the country.
