Temporary change of meeting venue for Canberra Birds

The Canberra Birds committee has decided to change the venue for our monthly members’ meetings, at least until renovations of the Canberra Girls Grammar School’s Multi-media Theatre are complete, expected in August/September 2026.

The new venue is the Bugang Room at the Denman Village Community Centre, located at 5 Felstead Vista, adjacent to the Denman Prospect shops (see Google Maps link https://maps.app.goo.gl/NqW3XrN5iJf8dzRe9)

This is a light, spacious, modern event venue with a kitchen.  There is plentiful parking, under lights, close to the door and with several disabled parking spots outside the door.  The room is on the first floor, accessed by two flights of stairs or by a lift.

To help guide you once there the Canberra Birds Sandwich Boards will be outside the front door and at the top of the stairs/lift.

For people attending the meeting by public transport, the R10 bus provides a very good service around every 15 minutes from the ANU through Civic to the Denman Prospect shops with the bus stop opposite the venue.  For example, a bus runs to there from 6:57 to 7:23 pm and return buses at 9:05 or 9:35 pm arriving at the ANU at 9:31 and 10:01 pm, respectively.

The first speaker will be Esha Shekar, a Ph D student at the Research School of Biology at the ANU on “Intensity of Nest Defence of White-Winged Choughs in Urban Versus Natural Habitats”

Nesting birds face significant risks of predation, prompting parents to invest in nest defence.  However, not all environments are the same, and parental investment may vary across different environments.  Urbanization often leads to habitat changes and an increase in generalist nest predators, potentially driving a higher risk of reproductive failure for birds.  This may require urban-breeding birds to invest more time and energy in nest defence, in addition to balancing other essential activities, such as incubation, foraging, and feeding their young.  In their study, they assessed the impact of urbanization on nest defence by White-winged Choughs (Corcorax melanorhamphos).  They checked whether (1) urban habitats have a greater abundance of nest predators compared to natural habitats, and (2) whether nest defence would correspondingly be higher in urban-breeding White-winged Choughs.  They also checked if (3) nest defence in the White-winged Choughs would increase with the age of the brood, in accordance with the nest defence theory, irrespective of their habitat.  This study reflects the effects of urbanization on the composition and behaviour of urban wildlife.

The main presentation will be by well-known ecologist and field naturalist, Rainer Rehwinkel, on “Birds surveys at six NSW Travelling Stock Reserves to the SE of Canberra”

Rainer undertook a four-year survey of birds at six travelling stock reserves (TSRs) in the Bungendore to Braidwood district.  This was an outcome of his previous work with NSW Government where he extensively surveyed all regional TSRs for their vegetation and also designed a Saving Our Species Project for the Scarlet Robin.  The bird survey was a part of a project to improve management of the TSRs with funding from Molonglo Conservation.  The TSRs were chosen based on their vegetation quality.

Rainer surveyed these TSRs over four seasons over the four years, using eBird as the data platform.  Rainer will share aspects of the data collected by his survey.