Marie Yee, Senior Conservation Planner at Sustainable Timber Tasmania which has spent the past month surveying 1,238 trees across 129 sites.
Swift parrots are back in Tasmania in search of forest areas with the richest food sources to forage and breed. Source: Timberbiz
Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s Swift Parrot Monitoring Program, now in its fourth year, is focused on effectively managing and supporting habitat for breeding swift parrots in Tasmania’s public production forest.
Sustainable Timber Tasmania spent the past month surveying 1,238 trees across 129 sites to evaluate eucalypt bud levels.
This is important because swift parrots are migratory, returning to Tasmania in the warmer months, and move into areas with the richest food sources to breed.
Bud surveying is crucial to understanding where key foraging trees will flower this spring and summer.
Findings from the survey show that Eucalyptus ovata and Eucalyptus brookeriana in the Eastern Tiers, East Coast, Bruny Island and southern coastal areas are set to provide foraging opportunities for this season. Eucalyptus globulus on the Tasman Peninsula and coastal areas will also be important food sources this season.
Results from these bud surveys help Sustainable Timber Tasmania focus its Swift Parrot Monitoring Program during breeding season.
General Manager Conservation and Land Management Suzette Weeding said that Sustainable Timber Tasmania is proactively monitoring and evaluating any potential nesting activity on public production forests which will inform our forest management and minimise risks to nesting birds.
The research and operations team conducted reconnaissance this past week located in and around our forest coupes with potential foraging and nesting habitat.
No swift parrots were heard or seen however, the team placed acoustic monitors out in the forest, which will be its ears to listen for any swift parrot activity in the area over the coming weeks.
