This week concludes the first ever Great Grampians Bird Survey – The GGBS! It has been an almighty 10 weeks delivering the Bird Ecology Course with Greg Kerr and a hugely successful weekend with Volunteers coming home with many beautiful bird stories. Volunteers completed 144 bird surveys this weekend at 36 remote sites across Gariwerd, the same sites from which Deakin University collect mammal data from each year. The data collected from Volunteers was entered into Birddata which is now accessible to the public. The aim of this project is to determine how effective the Grampians Ark project has been at controlling foxes and feral cats. Cat baiting began last year, however before this occurred, we contacted Dr Greg Kerr to collect base line bird data at the 36 mammal sites – which we can now call the mammal and bird sites. Greg returned to the same sites after the baiting had occurred and will be writing a report on his findings. This will be an ongoing project for the park, much like the mammal surveying that occurs each year.
Personally, it has been a great learning opportunity to deliver such a program for Gariwerd. I have been astounded by the passion and commitment each of the 40 Volunteers brought to class each week and their willingness to support an important project for the park. Creating an opportunity like this for the community to connect to this landscape has been the highlight. Volunteers are invaluable at assisting us as land managers to protect, manage and advocate for Gariwerd, I would like to thank each of them for their passion and dedication in assisting us to collect bird data that will contribute to the bigger picture of conservation.
Below are a few details about the program:
Facts & Figures
| Volunteer hours for 10 week bird ecology program | 1,520 |
| Volunteer hours for Autumn survey weekend | 608 |
| Total Volunteer Hours | 2,128 |
| TOTAL GNP Volunteer hours for 2019-2020 (All volunteer programs contribution) | 3,159 |
| Work Days Contributed (7.6 hours per day) | 266 |
| Bird Species Surveyed by Greg | 93 |
| Bird Species Surveyed by Volunteers | 40+ |
| Total Bird Surveys entered into Birdata at the 36 sites (Not including Greg’s 2020 and 2021 data) | 171 |
| Total Species surveyed (Not including Greg’s 2020 and 2021 data) | 84 |
Grants:
This project received grant funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Heritage Grants Program – Nature Glenelg Trust were fortunate to receive $88,000 for this project which allowed us to deliver the 10 week bird ecology course to the 40 volunteers. Gariwerd was in the same bucket of money as Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage property, Kakadu National Park – just to name a few. This project was funded with the support of the Victorian Governments Weeds and Pests on Public Land program and is helping to ensure that Victoria’s natural environment is healthy, valued and actively cared for.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Han Auld, Community Engagement Ranger – Visitors and Community, Grampians National Park