Dear all,
Despite many years of research, we still don’t really understand how and why bell miners shift colonies when they do. They seem to hang around for years in the one spot, then all of a sudden the entire colony will pull up stumps and move a couple of kilometres. In some areas this happens every couple of years, in others a colony has been in place for decades. My group has been trying to look at better ways of modelling bell miner site occupancy and, as a result, subsequent factors that might influence their association with unhealthy patches of forest. One of the first things we’d need to make a sensible model is how long birds hang around a given site, and unfortunately we just don’t know…
This is where I hope that the Birding Aus community might help out. Rather than spend the next ten years mapping and watching colonies come and go, I was hoping to collate records from others reports over the years. By putting them together in conjunction with other data such as the Birds Australia Atlas I and II, information from land holders and the like, a much larger database will be developed than if we try this as a small group from scratch. As such, we’re putting in a call for interested people to send us records of bell miner colony locations. My Honours student Natasha Marshall is doing this as one of the requirements of her degree, so rather than clog up Birding Aus if you can email myself or her direct we can send interested folk an excel template of the sorts of data that we’re after.
Natasha’s introductory email follows below, but if you have some relevant records and can take the time to dig them out we’d appreciate it. Hopefully we’ll then be able to provide some information that is going to help improve the management of vegetation health in the long run.
Many thanks, Paul
My name is Natasha Marshall. I am Honours student at the University of New England and I am currently researching the habitat requirements and movements of Bell Miner (Manorina melanophrys) colonies. To achieve the largest sample size, I am looking to collate historical records from across the species distribution. I am seeking any information on the location of colonies, timeframe of occupancy and, if known, new locations colonies occupied after relocation (for example colony moved 1 kilometre downstream/south etc). Further, any information relating to the region occupied, such as the approximated area occupied by the colony, floristic composition or habitat structure of occupied areas would be greatly appreciated. However, records that are not able to provide all information are still valuable and would be appreciated.
I am happy to provide more details if you require, and would be happy to discuss this with you at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Natasha (nmarsh10@une.edu.au)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dr Paul G. McDonald
Lecturer Zoology, School of Environmental and Rural Sciences University of New England Armidale NSW 2351 Australia
Ph: +612 6773 3317 Fax: +612 6773 3814
Publication list: http://publicationslist.org/paul.mcdonald Thompson ISI Researcher ID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/A-5928-2010 Web: http://www.une.edu.au/staff/pmcdon21.php ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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