Category: North Brook Island

Mid November saw Parks and Wildlife personnel and regular count volunteers heading out by boat to conduct the second count of the season at North Brook Island.

The team counted a total of 20,151 PIPs flying in to the island, a big increase from the previous count in early October.  Many thanks to everyone in the count team, and extra thanks to Liz for reporting and to John for the photos.

You can also read Liz’s delightful blog post the beauty of a Pied Imperial-pigeon count and read her full account here.

For North Brook Island, the first PIP count of the season was conducted on 2 October in good weather conditions. The count team reported a total of 10,950 PIPs flying in to the island. Many thanks to all participants.

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!

 

 

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.

A total of 17,931 PIPs were counted at North Brook Island by Queensland Parks and Wildlife staff and long term count volunteers. This is an encouraging  increase compared to last season’s extremely numbers when the majority of North Brook PIPs had been displaced by devastating habitat disturbance caused by tropical  cyclone Yasi. Thanks to Liz for passing on the good news so promptly!

Bad weather caused cancellation of the planned first count of the season at North Brook Island. Hopefully the next scheduled count will be able to proceed mid November.

With no counts yet this season, there is much uncertainty and concern about PIPs in the Hinchinbrook area. Last season (2011-12) PIP numbers at North Brook were extremely low, apparently due to the devastation of nesting and foraging habitat caused by Tropical Cyclone Yasi. It remains to be seen whether there will be any evidence of recovery this season.

A count on 17 Jan 2013 has been scheduled to replace the missed mid-October count.