Another round of thanks to Low Isles Caretakers Wayne and Jenni and count volunteers. They recorded 1,988 PIPs for their March count, the last scheduled count for this season.
Photo above thanks to Wayne and Jenni. Lots more of their beautiful photos can be seen on their “Low Isles Lighthouse” Facebook page.
If you’ve been seeing PIPs in your area over the past few months, can you check whether they are they still around now? Yes or no? Either way, please put in a PIP Observation report.
Your reports will help increase the understanding of PIP departure patterns at the end of the breeding season. Presence and absence records are important, especially for “tailenders” at this stage of the PIP season.
Please report other interesting PIP Observations too, and any late PIP nests you might notice.
Totals of 2,010 and 2,031 (concurrent independent counts) were recorded for PIPs returning to Green Island from 4.00 to 6.45PM on 16 February. Many thanks again to Gerry and Carolyn.
Unfortunately no January counts were done at Green Island this year.
Fine weather returned in time for the Low Isles count on 9 February. The count total was 13,217.
Many thanks to Low Isles Caretakers Wayne and Jenni and volunteer count team Dominic, Lisa, Julia, Fernando, Anne, and Deb.
A Pied Imperial-pigeon nest was destroyed on 31 January when Council workers/contractors pruned a street tree (Ficus benjamina, photo above) on Pier Point Road. The nest was under observation by Brian who recorded the PIP parents were tending a small chick during late January. Their chick was too young to have survived the loss of its nest.
In November we reported another nest loss to pruning on Cairns Esplanade. Both pruning losses were noticed only by chance. How many more nests may have been lost due to pruning, without being recorded?
Pied Imperial-pigeons are not the only native birds at risk from careless pruning. Many other native species nest in Cairns street trees including Yellow Oriole, Figbird, Helmeted Friarbird, Peaceful Dove, Yellow Honeyeater and Fig-parrot.
If you care about survival of native birds in the Cairns area, please join us in asking Cairns Regional Council to raise awareness among their staff and contractors and ensure their pruning crews check carefully for nests before cutting trees.
To contact Cairns Regional Council: phone 07 4044 3326 or email feedback@cairns.qld.gov.au
The North Brook Island count team conducted this month’s count on 17 January and reported a total of 20,539.
Many thanks to all concerned!
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Thanks to Low Isles Caretakers Wayne and Jenni and dedicated volunteers Andrew, Julie, Sophie and Harri, this month’s count went ahead as scheduled on 19 January despite windy wet conditions that weekend. The count total was 17,731.
The photo below was taken by Wayne and Jenni earlier in January. This is the sand cay where Low Isles monthly counts are conducted. Despite the idyllic appearance, counting is a challenging task as thousands of PIPs fly past to the adjacent mangrove cay known as Low Woody Island.
The December count at North Brook Island was delayed twice by bad weather. The count team of Marine Parks staff and volunteers succeeded on their third attempt (December 19) when they reached the island safely, monitored the afternoon return flight and reported a count of 21,088 PIPs.
Congratulations to the Cardwell team for their persistence despite adverse weather. Maintaining the December count each year is very important because December counts are used for monitoring long-term trends in PIP numbers.
Low Isles Caretakers Wayne and Jenni reported a total of 30,963 PIPs counted this month. The count team included Julie, Bella, Julie, Andrew, Sophie and Harri. Thanks to all!
On 8 December Gerry and Carolyn made two independent counts of PIPs returning to Green Island from 3.15pm until dark. They recorded 6,619 and 6,624 PIPs respectively.
Many thanks to Gerry and Carolyn for keeping the counts going after the recent departure of Ranger Aaron.
Green Island photo courtesy Wikepedia Commons