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The short talk will be by Chris Davey and will be a slightly extended version of the one that was going to be given at Members Night in January but was subsequently cancelled due to COVID restrictions.
The presentation titled ‘Difficulties in assessing breeding success in the Gang-gang Cockatoo’ will be based on experience gained since the COG survey in 2014 in the ACT. The talk will discuss general difficulties associated with a hollow-nesting species, how to find and assess possible breeding sites, Gang-gang nesting behaviour and problems associated with measuring reproductive success.
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The main presentation will be by Richard Beggs, a Research and Extension Officer with the ANU’s Sustainable Farms Team and is entitled “War on the Noisy Miner: reassessing the casus belli”.
Richard’s Ph D study involved experimental patch-scale culls of Noisy Miners in woodland remnants in the fragmented agricultural landscapes of the South West Slopes of NSW. He presented the plans for the study to COG in a 2016 presentation and then in 2018 reported how the culls had had little impact on Noisy Miner abundance due to immediate recolonisation. In this updated presentation he will provide an overview of the problem of overabundant Noisy Miners from an ecological and social perspective, will consider possible solutions, and will summarise the findings of his own research, including his environmental history of the species.