Australian Bush Life

So many of Australia’s unique wildlife are killed or injured on our roads each year. A rapid response from the driver/passenger could mean life or death to the animal who has been hit. But who to call when there are 3 Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation groups in Victoria. Choosing from 3 under pressure is difficult.

So luckily RACV has this amazing program where if you just ring their number they will automatically transfer you through to your nearest wildlife carer to the accident location anywhere in Victoria. Link to RACV Wildlife Connect.

Too easy. 1 number to remember. 13 11 11.

Plug this number in to your mobile phone right now so you are ready to respond.

Please pass this message around…

Also keep these items in your car so that you can readily deal with an injured animal:

• old pillow case
• empty box
• blanket/s
• gloves

More information on local wildlife…

More sustainable living tips…

Garden lighting is something we use minimally in our lives. All lighting uses energy so wherever we can avoid lighting the less energy we use and the better for the environment.  For minimal garden lighting we only use when we are in the garden at night (when you obviously need to see) and we only have lighting illuminating particular garden features:

• Our carpark
• Our BBQ
• Our outdoor seating / dining area
• Our front and rear entries

We never have outdoor lighting on when we are inside. This not only saves energy (and money) but even more importantly to us we don’t want to upset our wildlife neighbours.

Garden lighting effects our australian wildlife

A great proportion of australian wildlife are nocturnal, coming out soon after dark to interact with their local habitat, other local wildlife or to find food and water. Being nocturnal native wildlife have adapted to function in low light and particularly their eyes are sensitive to bright lights. Imagine trying to move around in search of food with bright lights shining in your eyes…

Wildlife friendly garden lighting pointing downwards onto driveway.

The rarer types of wildlife species are generally more likely to avoid well lit areas. For instance more common wildlife species such as Ringtail Possums and Common Brushtail Possums have adapted to bright lights and hence can readily be found in our cities. But to encourage less common wildlife to our gardens not only do we have to provide key habitat features such as food (indigenous plants) and homes (tree hollows, ground cover plants & habitat logs and dense shrubs etc) we must reduce lighting.

In addition to really give our rarer wildlife a welcoming garden home working on noise reduction, particularly threatening noises like dogs barking, along with light reduction will make a huge difference for these shy creatures to feel safe and confident.

How to reduce the impact of lighting on wildlife in your garden

• Eliminate all unneccessary garden lighting locations
• Always point garden lighting downwards not upwards into trees
• Never point bright/feature lighting onto large old hollow bearing trees (wildlife homes)
• Don’t shine lights on other areas like lawns where wildlife may graze at night
• Only use outdoor lighting when neccessary
• Reduce the brightness of lighting, softer lighting is more welcoming
• Keep garden lighting close to the home
• Allow some areas of your garden to remain completely dark
• Solar lighting is usually a gentler light and doesn’t use electricity

Added bonus: By reducing garden lighting you get to enjoy clear skies full of brilliant shining stars.

Southern Brown Tree Frog - Litoria ewingii on window.

The Southern Brown Tree Frog – Litoria ewingii is a commonly frog found in our local area. We hear them croaking with a weep, weep ,weep, weep, weep, weep, weep sound (first “weep” sound is the longest). In fact I think we would feel quite sad if we didn’t hear this sound coming from our garden as it is so much a part of our lives.

We don’t always see these frogs though so got a big surprise when we found one in the kitchen amongst our drying dishes the other day. Luckily this little guy had found a nice moist place underneath a mug and was still in great condition so could safely be returned to the garden.

To pick up this frog I just ensured that I had nice clean hands as frogs have very sensitive skin and they can absorb all sorts of chemicals and other compounds that dissolve in water. I also wet my hands with clean water to reduce the abrasive impact of my rough hands (any human hand is rough to delicate frog skin).

Being a tree frog though he was pretty quick to make a get away and using his large toe pads tried to hop away by making his way up the kitchen window before I gently got a grab on him. To return him to the garden I placed him in an area with plenty of frog habitat including ground cover plants, rocks and habitat logs so that he could quickly find a sheltered place to hide out the day. I gave the area a sprinkle of clean water too to ensure that he didn’t dry out whilst find that hiding place.

Southern Brown Tree Frog - Litoria ewingii on ground cover plant.

To us frogs are such an important part of our garden biodiversity. All frogs are sensitive to pollution and habitat degradation so knowing they can find a home in our garden re-assures us that we are looking after our natural environment. These little tree frogs pay us back by keeping our insect populations under control as they are very agile predators. They are an organic gardeners treasure feeding aggressively most nights throughout the year - it is difficult to think how many thousands of potential vegetable garden pests they must consume.

Heres to the Southern Brown Tree Frogs they are welcome to live around our vegetable garden any day.

Other frogs in our garden…

Hardenbergia violacia or Purple Coral-pea. Natural wildlife food.

We have never seen so much Purple Coral-pea – Hardenbergia violacea as has been abounding on our bush block in the last 2 years with excessive re-growth triggered by the bushfire in 2009. This is one fire loving indigenous plant.

During spring we had masses of purple flowers trailing along the ground and creeping up small trees and shrubs. Since December these flowers have produced numerous pea pods which have been bursting with ripe seed to provide a bounty of food for local wildlife.

Hardenbergia violacia - Crimson Rosella eating seeds.

Although there are many smaller animals like ants which undoubtably harvest the seeds from the ground we most commonly see parrots feeding on the seed pods. Our most common parrots, King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas will come right down onto the ground to spend time opening the pods gorging on the hardy seeds within.

Hardenbergia violacea seeds eaten by King Parrots.

Any excess seeds that are not harvested for food by our local wildlife will remain hidden amongst the leaf litter and soil on our bush block. The tough seed coat protecting this seed bank until the next round of germination. This plant is a hardy native survivor, the tough seeds can even be protected through droughts or bushfire.

More natural wildlife foods…

More information and pictures of Purple Coral-pea – Hardenbergia violacea…

Painted Button-quail - Turnix varia. Recovering from shock in a quiet and dark place.

We recently had a Painted Button-quail, Turnix varia, crash into our windows. The bird hit hard and as it is quite a small bird this caused it to go into shock.

Whilst in this state of shock the quail was very vulnerable to any form of attack by a predator. Additionally the exposure to the cooler weather of the morning may increase the chance of death when in this state. As we have had another small bird - a Striated Pardalote crash into our windows before and die, we decided to pick the animal up and put it in a quiet space to let it recover from the shock. Click here for more information and tips on how to avoid birds striking your windows…

We placed the Painted Button-quail in a cardboard box on some clean rags for warmth, comfort and somewhere to hide. Closed the lid and just peeped in every 10 minutes to check it was going okay. After about half and hour the animal had perked back up. We could tell as it had become fully alert and was trying to get out of the box. This fiesty spirit is what it would need to survive in the bush. We were also able to give it a small drink of water and it drank another sign it was feeling a lot better. We released the bird in the exact location where we had found it and it immediately flew off to our relief.

Painted Button-quail - Turnix varia. Flew away immediately on release.

Like all quails the Painted Button-quail is a ground dwelling bird. It predominantly eats seeds and really enjoys the seeds of our indigenous grasses such as the Wallaby Grass, Kangaroo Grass and Weeping Grass. The indigenous grasses are also all tufting grasses and left un-mowed provide excellent habitat for birds like quails to hide amongst. We have noticed more quails than ever before after the recent bushfire as all our indigenous grasses have successfully regenerated in larger numbers than were originally found on our bushblock (pre-bushfire). The higher rainfall over the last year has also helped provide a bumper source of seed for the birds.

Another important habitat feature for ground dwelling birds such as quails to survive is to maintain a good ground cover of leaf litter, twigs and logs. This provides additional protection from predators particularly as quails build their nests on the ground. Without this ground cover and a good scattering of indigenous grasses it would be very difficult for quails to survive and breed and they would most likely become locally extinct in areas where these features are removed.

Feral predators particularly foxes and cats are also be a major threat to the Painted Button-quail. Additionally human activites can threaten quail survival such as straying pets (cats & dogs), and ”tidying up”; fuel reduction such as mowing & clearing up the leaf litter, twigs and logs. The “tidying up” of our bush particularly occurs and is promoted as a bushfire prevention method and is particularly disastrous to ground dwelling species that rely on these exact habitat features for their existence.

We choose to refrain from “tidying up”; mowing & clearing away the leaf litter, twigs and logs as we love to see these ground dwelling creatures survive. They are the reason we live on our bushblock and we refuse to turn our piece of paradise into a parkland with low biodiversity values just for the sake of a bushfire event that may or may not happen in the short or long term. This would be giving up on the wildlife that we get to live amongst every day for a single day that might not even be for another 30 years or more into the future (it was 48 years between the last 2 bushfires!). It would defeat all reason for living here in the bush amongst the wildlife.

What are your thoughts on “tidying up” as a bushfire prevention technique that can remove the exact habitat that the Painted Button-quail needs?

BirdWatchCam - Helmeted Honeyeater. Legband white on dark green. Full shot.

Weather

The camera was left outside in a range of conditions. It actually worked through a severe storm and the inner waterproofing surround stopped water entering the batteries and SD card area (inner core). It doesn’t matter what angle the camera was it on it still protects the inner core.

There was some fogging of the lens early in the morning after the major rain event but this cleared within a couple of hours after sunrise.

Checking / Downloading Footage

This is very simple. Can easily take a laptop out into the field (study site). Extremely easy to change the batteries and the SD card whilst in the field. Was able to quickly check the JPG folders whilst in the field, also download to my laptop and return SD card into the camera within 10 minutes.

It is recommended to take an initial quick image and check using your laptop before setting up the camera for long periods to ensure you will get the best quality images. 

BirdWatchCam - Helmeted Honeyeater. Legband yellow on light green. Cropped.

Bird Identification

Can easily see bird bands and identify birds. All birds that came into view were visibly identified by their leg band during the series of 20 shots taken.

Benefits

Currently a lot of video film is taken for fieldwork of this nature. The BirdWatchCam reduces the need to plough through endless hours of footage with nothing in the frame, as the folders of JPG files were very easy to skip through to find presence of birds.

Good application for bird identification (species and individuals by leg band) within a given area (less than 54cm x 40 cm) of known visitation.

The camera is extremely light, the rechargeable batteries and SD card are also light and simple to use (and swap) in the field.

The camera performs well under wet weather tested to about 2 degrees centigrade.

The camera can be left for long periods of time, assumed well over 10 days is possible, before needing to change batteries and/or SD card. More research required for exact details on duration, but after initial trial this is very good as requires minimal physical effort for a potential large amount of data.

• Summary Part 1 – Camera Set Up, Image Quality, Setting Time Function
• Summary Part 2 – Duration, Focal Distance, Timing
• Batteries used in research

Duration

batteries
52 sets (x 20 images each) were taken over 5 days. This was approximately 52 hours of daylight as trialed in winter with shorter day length, summer would use batteries faster. The batteries reduced in charge from 1.40V to 1.29V. It appears the camera could stay out for many more days or under more intense photo taking periods and still cope with an original set of batteries.
 
SD card
The maximum SD card size that can go into the camera is 8GB (comes with a 2GB card). Each photo taken during the trial period ranged in size between 60 – 120KB as JPEG’s.
Therefore
•average of 90KB image by 20 produces a set at 1.8MB
•using average 1.8MB set, the camera can store over 4,000 sets of images

Focal distance

The focal distance has 3 settings, 1.5, 2 and 3 metres. But as the focal distance uses a rotating button you can also estimate any focal length between 1.5 – 3 metres. For example during the trial I chose 2.2m as this was the distance to a nearby tree for easy camera mounting. I altered the rotating focal length button 1/5 of the way from 2m to 3m (an estimated 2.2m focal length).

Note: The camera comes with a string line measuring tape, but it was difficult to set the camera independently (without someone helping you hold the other end of the tape) using this string. You need a measured solid stick, or a stiffer measuring tape to help guide you if you are setting up on your own.

The camera could easily be mounted onto a metal or wooden stake to get the distance right. Although it is really easy to mount on a tree first and then set the feeder/water point to meet good camera requirements. Note: I do not generally agree with feeding wildlife, the bird feeding used in this trial is part of a captive release program for threatened bird species. I am although happy to recommend water points, such as bird baths which can be used just as effectively as bird attractors.

To assist in set up the area that the camera takes a photo of varies depending on the focal length as below:

•1.5m focal length produces an approximate 27cm x 21cm frame taken.
•2.0m focal length produces an approximate 37cm x 30cm frame taken.
•3.0m focal length produces an approximate 54cm x 40cm frame taken.

Timing

The camera takes 20 images in 13 seconds.  Or about 0.65 hundredths of a second between shots.

The first image is taken at about 1.3 seconds after trigger. The camera also seems to re-boot quickly after a set of 20 images and within seconds is ready to capture the next round. This has scientific potential as for instance a nestling Helmeted Honeyeater was taken from a nest by a Kookaburra in less than a second which could almost be caught on film using this camera, but not guaranteed. More trialing needed to ensure that it can capture everything required for certain studies.

The camera did take blank sets of 20 images during the trial, maybe triggered by falling leaves or branches? This did not in any way effect the storage space during the trial or greatly lengthen the amount of data that was required to be checked at the end of the trial.

BirdWatchCam used in Helmeted Honeyeater trial.

Recently as part of my research work on Helmeted Honeyeaters – Lichenostomus melanops cassidix I trialled a new camera for potential application in (ornithological) research. The intention for use in this project would be to positively identify individual birds prescence through recognition of colored leg bands. Particularly useful for tracking after release as part of a captive breeding program.

Outlined is a 3 part summary detailing performance of BirdWatchCam, particularly in relation to scientific use and application.

BirdWatchCam uses a motion sensor system which relies on a moving object entering the camera frame to trigger 20 images to be taken. The camera uses a set focus (options between 1.5m – 3m) and only operates during daylight hours. The lack of flash and focus allows the camera to be very energy efficient.

Camera set up

Can set up the camera for portrait or landscape to get maximum field potential for shot. I chose the landscape option as birds in my trial had more opportunity to get into the frame along a horizontal branch.

Inconspicuous: The camera’s small size and light weight means that the camera is not too obtrusive to the natural environment. It also makes no sound when taking the photos just a subtle flashing of a dull green light (which is very difficult to see). The camera could easily be mounted at heights which is normally difficult with heavy or cumbersome cameras often currently used in research. Or the camera can be hidden in bush areas where people may not find the camera (hence reducing it’s likelihood of being stolen from public spaces).

Image quality

Best to get sun direction right to get clearest photos (sun behind camera). Doesn’t produce images of a quality to magnify and use for media / print type purpose or avoid blurring when birds move whilst the image is taken, you need a high quality digital camera for this. But the images were still very clear and could be blown up to assist with identification of birds – viewing their leg bands.

The best quality images would be taken under a strong light situation, but for the birds in this trial they are generally found in quite dense forest and low light levels. The camera clearly performed well enough under this low light to ensure bird identification, which was the intention of it’s use during this trial period.

Setting time function

I didn’t get time to use this function but it should be easy. This is a very useful tool with date and time shown on each image – this has many options for scientific application when date & time are set correctly.

• Summary Part 2 – Duration, Focal Distance, Timing
• Summary Part 3 – Weather, Checking / Downloading Footage, Bird Identification, Benefits
• Batteries used in research

Koala climbing down a tree where it crosses ground to a new tree.

We do not have Koalas - Phascolarctos cinereus living on our bush block, but I am lucky enough to have Koalas at some of my field sites where I work with Helmeted Honeyeaters – Lichenostomus melanops cassidix. There is something fundamentally Australian about the Koala and my recent close encounter with one was such a magic moment.

Whilst waiting quietly for my survey birds to return I was startled by a large Koala coming down the Manna Gum – Eucalytpus viminalis next to me. The site is along a creek bed so hosts many of these large trees which Koalas do love. The Koala was quite happy to wander down onto the ground and across to a new tree right next to me. He was also quite happy to pose for some photos so lucky for me I had my camera on hand.

The major threats to Koalas are loss of habitat, dog attacks and car strikes. This loss of habitat seems to be the bane of many species and is a constant pressure on maintaining biodiversity. Particularly when habitat is lost and replaced with roads (car strikes) and homes (with pet dogs).

Koala climbing Manna Gum - Eucalyptus viminalis.

It is possible to live in harmony with Koalas but they need trees to survive. Some of their key habitat trees in Victoria are Eucalypts (both for eating and living in) such as E.viminalis – Manna Gum, E.camaldulensis - River Red Gum, E.obliqua – Messmate, E.melliodora – Yellow Box and many of these are not small trees! Hopefully those who choose to live in Koala habitat are also choosing to live amongst trees (particularly large ones). There is a full list of trees on the Koala Foundations website.

Fencing is a barrier as Koalas need to come to ground to move between trees – is it something we can choose to live without? Dog attacks are frequent as the Koalas are most vulnerable when they are on the ground moving between trees. Maybe choosing to live in Koala (wildlife) habitat could reduce the need to have a pet dog? Car strikes can be reduced where roads are generally small (freeways are major wildlife barriers) by simply driving carefully to protect wildlife i.e. slowing down and taking care to avoid hitting wildlife.

Dog sitting without owning a pet.

We have chosen to live in the Australian Bush to enjoy the local wildlife and all it can offer.

We would consider to own farm animals to assist us with food production such as chickens or other poultry. Hey and we also consider our worms from our worm farm as pets – are we mad?!?

We would never own a cat as we both know how much damage cats have wreaked on biodiversity in Australia. Owning a cat is just something we could not morally do.

We know that we may be seen as “different” as owning a pet is so mainstream in Australia, but we hope to highlight some of the benefits of not owning a pet cat or dog.

• Saves money – no vet bills or pet food bills
• Reduces our carbon footprint by avoiding buying pet food (particularly meat)
• Can holiday anytime and anywhere (including National Parks)
• Don’t need to build or maintain fencing
• Don’t feel guilty about not looking after them (during long work days) or not walking them
• No pet hairs or smells all over our clothes and furniture
• No barking, which actually can really destroy peace & quiet!
• No doggy (or cat) poo to pick up and manage
• Our local wildlife are more likely to be around when no pets are present

Sadie helping with garlic brading - not!

Another option we have found that fills this “pet” niche is that we often “doggy sit” a couple of local dogs for short periods. This is a fun option and more like a holiday when we look after them.