Hi All,
I received the following response from Richard Noske last night re the White-throated Grasswren. Richard conducted research into this species in the late 1980s.
Stephen Ambrose Ryde, NSW
On Fri 17/09/10 11:20 PM , “Richard Noske”
Hi Stephen
Nice to hear from you, and thanks for thinking of me re: WTGW. I don’t get Birding-aus, but may join up when I’m more settled into our new life and home (Brisbane).
I am not sure how seriously to take Darryel’s email re: Gunlom as, according to an email from Mike Jarvis on the following day, a group of Dutch birders picked them up there around the same time.
WTGW are now considered threatened because satellite imagery shows that fire has increased in frequency and intensity in the sandstone country of western Arnhem Land (including the E margins of Kakadu) over the last few decades.
So it was good news that a fire abatement program, called “WALFA” http://savanna.cdu.edu.au/information/arnhem_fire_project.html was set up some years ago, with long-term funding promised from Darwin Liquified Natural gas, to reduce fire frequency and greenhouse gas emissions from the region. But I haven’t seen (or sought) any recent reports of its achievements.
How threatened is WTGW? I don’t think we’ll know for sure until new surveys are undertaken. It would be worthwhile re-visiting the sites I visited in the late 80s to see if the birds still occur there. In fact, for some time I have been thinking of applying for a grant to do just that- as some of the best sites are only accessible by helicopter. A few months ago I spent a weekend in western Arnhem Land with two other birders, looking for them (unsuccessfully) in a new area, but there was evidence that these outliers and escarpment had been severely burnt.
So if anyone else is interested in securing funds for a new survey, I’d be happy to collaborate with them.
Cheers
Richard
Dr Richard Noske Hon. Senior Research Fellow School of Environmental Research Charles Darwin University Darwin, Northern Territory, 0909, Australia. Phone: (07) 3300 2757 (AH); 0437 652 048 (M) email: richard.noske@cdu.edu.au http://www.cdu.edu.au/research/profiles/profile_noske.html http://kukila2004.wordpress.com/kukila/
Dear Stephen,
Do you know if the Dutch birders used tapes to call in the birds or field-craft to find the WTGW?
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
Hi All,
I received the following response from Richard Noske last night re the White-throated Grasswren. Richard conducted research into this species in the late 1980s.
Stephen Ambrose Ryde, NSW
On Fri 17/09/10 11:20 PM , “Richard Noske” wrote:
Hi Stephen
Nice to hear from you, and thanks for thinking of me re: WTGW. I don’t get Birding-aus, but may join up when I’m more settled into our new life and home (Brisbane).
I am not sure how seriously to take Darryel’s email re: Gunlom as, according to an email from Mike Jarvis on the following day, a group of Dutch birders picked them up there around the same time.
WTGW are now considered threatened because satellite imagery shows that fire has increased in frequency and intensity in the sandstone country of western Arnhem Land (including the E margins of Kakadu) over the last few decades.
So it was good news that a fire abatement program, called “WALFA” http://savanna.cdu.edu.au/information/arnhem_fire_project.html was set up some years ago, with long-term funding promised from Darwin Liquified Natural gas, to reduce fire frequency and greenhouse gas emissions from the region. But I haven’t seen (or sought) any recent reports of its achievements.
How threatened is WTGW? I don’t think we’ll know for sure until new surveys are undertaken. It would be worthwhile re-visiting the sites I visited in the late 80s to see if the birds still occur there. In fact, for some time I have been thinking of applying for a grant to do just that- as some of the best sites are only accessible by helicopter. A few months ago I spent a weekend in western Arnhem Land with two other birders, looking for them (unsuccessfully) in a new area, but there was evidence that these outliers and escarpment had been severely burnt.
So if anyone else is interested in securing funds for a new survey, I’d be happy to collaborate with them.
Cheers
Richard
Dr Richard Noske Hon. Senior Research Fellow School of Environmental Research Charles Darwin University Darwin, Northern Territory, 0909, Australia. Phone: (07) 3300 2757 (AH); 0437 652 048 (M) email: richard.noske@cdu.edu.au http://www.cdu.edu.au/research/profiles/profile_noske.html http://kukila2004.wordpress.com/kukila/