Do you plant here often?

Landcare for Singles – Yellingbo

When: Sunday 13th September from 10.30am – 2pm

Where: Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, Macclesfield Rd, Yellingbo Melway ref: 306 A8

What: Planting to restore habitat for the endangered state bird emblem - the Helmeted Honeyeater..and…who knows….maybe meeting that someone special.

Register online

Further Details: Upon registration, further details regarding the day will be sent to you.

Enquiries: yvlandcare@bigpond.com mob: 0488 766 113

This Event is hosted by the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater, with support from the Macclesfield Landcare Group and coordinated by the Yarra Ranges Landcare Network.

This event has been made possible through a PPWCMA Community Grant.

When upgrading is not something to smile about

Swamp Gum - core habitat. Image S.Tardif

 When Australian fauna found nowhere else on earth go from endangered to critically endangered.

Both the Helmeted Honeyeater and Leadbeater's Possum (Victoria's faunal emblems) have recently been upgraded to critically endangered - facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild - under The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act).

The EPBC Act is the Australian Government's central piece of environmental legislation. It provides a legal framework to protect and manage nationally and internationally important flora, fauna, ecological communities and heritage places — defined in the EPBC Act as matters of national environmental significance.

Is this all bad news? Is this the beginning of the end?

No.

The Recovery Teams of both species have sought EPBC Act critically endangered status to provide for increased protection of these species. 

What can you do?
Many things. Both big and small. For starters, contact the Friends and buy a membership (from $10). 

Your membership makes a difference. Find out more here

What does $10 buy these days?

Helmeted Honeyeater fledgling March 2015 - image B.Tardif

Apart from membership to Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater?

Not much.

Your membership makes a difference to the long-term survival of this bird (pictured). Find out more here

Breaking records

At less than 30 days this fledgling looks to its parents for food - image B.Tardif

It's a NEW RECORD, and another one, and another.... A record breaking breeding season for Yellingbo

Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is home to the last remaining wild population of Helmeted Honeyeaters - in the world! Each bird is precious.

In the 2013-14 breeding season (Aug'13-Feb'14), 36 Helmeted Honeyeater young were raised at Yellingbo. A bumper year!

The 2014-15 breeding season has broken records! In March 2015 we know of:

• in excess of 130 individual birds - a record number of birds since the start of the recovery program in 1989
• 23 breeding territories - a record number
• 46 fledglings - beating the 1995-96 record
• 2 females still building nests - don't they know the breeding season is over?

There are a number of new pairings this year, including females who are breeding for the first time.

One female has had triplets for the 2nd year running (plus two additional clutches of 2 offspring each).

Birds from the 2013-14 breeding season have dispersed into a new breeding territory. Some of this seasons fledglings have also been sighted here. The last recorded observations of HeHos at this site was in the late 1970s. The birds are using plantings that range in age from 4 years old to 30 years old. This is a great endorsement of the generation of restoration effort made by the local community and the Helmeted Honeyeater Recovery Team.

How good is that?

Would you like to be part of the volunteer team that monitors the Helmeted Honeyeater populations at Yellingbo? Contact us for further details.