Jennifer E. Taylor

Birds in remnant woodland vegetation in the central wheatbelt of New South Wales during the drought declared years 2005 to 2009

The woodlands of southern Australia have been extensively cleared for agriculture. The loss and fragmentation of the native vegetation has been followed by dramatic declines in woodland-dependant species. Here we present data from the Central Western Plains of New South Wales on the occurrence of birds in woodlands that have been highly fragmented and structurally altered over the last 150 years. The species composition of the region is still very similar to that recorded 3 decades earlier but many small insectivorous and nectivorous woodland birds are rare and restricted, while the woodland patches and remnant tree groves in the landscape are now dominated by the Galah, Noisy Miner, Australian Magpie, Crested Pigeon, Apostlebird, Magpie-lark, Grey-crowned Babbler, Australian Raven, Eastern Rosella and Pied Butcherbird.

After the 2010 rains: changes in reporting rates of birds in remnant woodland vegetation in the central wheatbelt of New South Wales, Australia, from drought to post-drought

Loss and fragmentation of the native vegetation of the Central Western Plains of New South Wales was followed by declines of woodland-dependent species. Drought is likely to have further suppressed many animal populations. Here we report on changes in woodland bird reporting rates between surveys in 2005-2009 (drought declared period) and surveys in 2010-2013 following the drought-breaking rains of 2010. By 2013 the number of species detected per survey had just recovered to the level of surveys in 2005/6. The 2013 species composition of the region was similar to that recorded in the 2005-2009 drought surveys, with half of the small insectivorous and nectarivorous woodland birds remaining rare and restricted. Woodland remnants in the landscape continued to be dominated by the same, usually large, species of birds, but reporting rates of 13 of the 15 most common species declined. Conversely, several smaller, foliage gleaning passerines had higher reporting rates post-drought, with Striated Pardalote and We...

Bassian bats in the Eyrean sub-region? Preliminary acoustic data from the Bogan and Macquarie Rivers in semi-arid NSW

We conducted acoustic surveys of insectivorous bat fauna in riparian areas along the Macquarie and Bogan River systems in the wheatbelt of semi-arid central-western New South Wales, Australia. In surveys of 10 sites we detected 11 species and two species groups of bats in eight genera. Four species, Chocolate Wattled Bat Chalinolobus morio, Large-footed Myotis Myotis macropus, Large Forest Bat Vespadelus darlingtoni and Southern Forest Bat V. regulus, are predominantly Bassian (chiefly coastal) in their recorded distributions but were detected in the semi-arid Eyrean sub-region on two rivers in vegetation dominated by River Red Gum Eucalyptus camaldulensis. The findings of this study highlight the need for further research to assess the importance of riparian corridors as habitat for insectivorous bats in semi-arid New South Wales.

Effects of weather, time of day, and survey effort on estimates of species richness in temperate woodlands

ABSTRACT We used clearly defined measures of weather and time of day to determine their impacts on the number of bird species recorded in 5439 area-search surveys of 142 one-hectare sites in open temperate woodlands. Surveys recording the highest number of species spanned the full range of times of day and weather conditions. For our full dataset, the number of species recorded dropped by 16% at higher wind speeds (>20 km/h), 0.8%/h after sunrise (or 7.4% in the afternoon compared to morning), and 0.5% per degree temperature increase, but was unrelated to cloud cover. Resampling our full dataset, we separated impacts of effort from weather and analysed scenarios which might arise with time or budget constraints. Dawn surveys were less affected by time and weather, and recorded more species than other scenarios per unit of effort, especially at species-rich sites. We demonstrate that setting thresholds for these variables is not warranted if this reduces sample size in a study. Conversely, if researchers are restricted to a fixed number of surveys, then our data highlight that thresholds may be used to optimise results by avoiding periods when less productive conditions, particularly winds >20 km/h, prevail.