Bird Week – March 2016
In March 2016, nine people joined up to explore the bird life of Lord Howe Island. We walked along Malabar Ridge for observing Red-tailed tropicbirds, Mount Eliza for magnificent views, and we did see the Grey Ternlets in Old Gulch. We had a perfect day for Balls Pyramid, and dolphins joined in for part of […]
Senate Hearing on Marine Plastic Pollution in Australia – February 2016
On 18th February I attended the Senate Hearing held in Sydney and gave statements about the impacts of marine plastic on seabirds at Lord Howe Island. Also in attendance were Jennifer Lavers, Steve Smith, Mark Browne and Anthony Underwood. There was some good media coverage so we can hope this will lead somewhere.
Island Arks conference at Norfolk Island – February 2016
In February I attended the fourth Island Arks conference, held this year at Norfolk Island. 85 managers and researchers involved in Island Conservation around Australia and New Zealand attended and presented research and project findings. I presented a paper “Social aspects to successful island conservation – lessons from the proposed rodent eradication on Lord Howe […]
Bird Week – November 2015
Fourteen participants flew into the island to sunny weather and looking forward to a week learning about the island birds. November is the peak time for our seabirds and everyone enjoyed the experience of having nice close encounters with the seabirds of the island. Highlights were North Bay day with chicks of Sooty terns, Black […]
Flesh Footed Shearwater Research – October 2015
This week with Jennifer and Andrew Lavers and Alice Forrest was to try and retrieve TLD loggers deployed in October 2014. These are devices to record any trace radioactivity the birds may have been exposed to on their winter sojourn around the Sea of Japan. Alice also began study into trace elements that may be […]
USA Lectures – October 2015
I visited USA to lecture on the impact of ocean plastic debris on seabirds. The Kookaburra Foundation sponsored me to travel and do presentations at the Delaware Natural History Museum. One presentation had an audience of 80 interested people from the Wilmington district. The next day I gave a similar presentation to about 80 school […]
Weeding Ecotour for the Friends of LHI – August 2015
18 people arrived on the early flight from Sydney for this week of conservation and island exploration. The weeding effort was centred on Transit Hill. The initial focus was on clearing the Edie’s Glen site of the secondary weeds such as Fleabane, Solanum, Thistle and Crofton weed. This area, adopted by the Friends in 2007 […]
Island Biology Field Trip – June 2015
The second Island Biology Field Trip for the course from Victoria University, New Zealand. This trip had 11 students with supervisor Kevin Burns. The students enjoyed the walks around the island to observe first hand and understand the results of island biology processes. The students also participated in a half-day conservation project assisting Friends of […]
Friends of Cranbourne Botanic Gardens – May 2015
In May I hosted three groups from Friends of Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, in collaboration with Rodger and Gwen Elliot. The participants on all three trips were of course very keen to see as many of the island’s unique plants as possible. While on the island they also enjoyed the other World Heritage values of the […]
Shearwater Plastic Project – April 2015
For this years’ research Anicee Lombee, Phoebe Lewis, Vaughn Wellington and Andrew Fiddler came over to assist Jennifer Lavers and me carry out monitoring the chicks of two shearwaters for incidence of plastic. 66 Flesh footed shearwaters and 40 Wedgetalied shearwaters were processed using the technique of lavaging – flushing the stomach with water to […]