Innovation earns the HeHo community a Landcare Award

Congratulations to all our members and volunteers. What a team!

The Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater have won the Community Group Caring for Public Land Award at the 2008 Port Phillip and Western Port Landcare Awards held at Zinc, Federation Square on 6/9/08.

The Friends were selected from seven outstanding nominations from among the more than 230 ‘Friends of’ Groups within the Port Phillip and Western Port region, which encompasses Melbourne and its surrounding catchments.

The Awards celebrate people caring for land and focus on the thousands of volunteers making a difference by tackling some of the big issues in Melbourne’s landscape and catchment environments. CEO of the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority Mr David Buntine said the Friends continue to be leaders in their field.

“The Group is widely recognised for excellence and innovation in conservation activities and has developed strategic links with other organisations, established an indigenous nursery producing 50,000 plans per year for restoration of public and private land,” Mr Buntine said. “Their contribution in the Yarra Valley and particularly in the Yellingbo area has been significant, and their enthusiasm and commitment as a group continues to make outstanding difference to the protection of local flora and fauna.”

The Friends will now be nominated for the 2009 Victorian Landcare Awards.

The Friends would also like to acknowledge two of our friends in conservation who were both nominated in the strongly contested 'Caring for Country' category.

• Steve Mitchell from Macclesfield Landcare Group
• Bend of Islands Conservation Association (Winners. Congratulations!)
  

More information here

Ambassadors go behind the scenes

The Friends' Ambassadors’ program with Yellingbo and Macclesfield Primary Schools involves 8 students from each school. They experience what is involved in efforts to save our endangered bird emblem and are encouraged to spread the word on what each individual can do to preserve our precious indigenous flora and fauna.

Back in June the students were driven into the reserve in 4wd’s to learn about the special habitat Helmeted Honeyeater’s require, and to gain first-hand experience of the supplementary bird feeding and monitoring program. A tour of our nursery, a presentation on the Leadbeater’s Possum and a bushwalk capped off the day.

On Tuesday 29/7/08 we took a bus to Healesville Sanctuary to meet up with Senior Keeper, Karina Cartwright, who showed us through the captive breeding areas for the Helmeted Honeyeater, Mountain Pygmy-possum, Orange-bellied Parrot, Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby and Tasmanian Devil. A really unique experience to see what goes on behind the scenes. We were very lucky to meet up with one of the sanctuary’s vets, Rupert Baker, who showed us a Mountain Pygmy-possum that he had operated on. Not many people get to see these critically endangered animals. We then headed for the Parrots in Flight exhibition with another keeper, Jason which was a great experience before we reluctantly headed home. The Ambassadors’ loved the day and learnt a lot from Karina. Here are some of their edited comments:

Kristy: "Some of the things that the keepers feed the helmeted honey eaters were millworms (sic. mealworms). Karina told us that they taste like popcorn when fried, and also a milky substance that contains dried pollens and seeds.

I think this was an excellent experience and I hope we get to do it again someday. This is a day I will never forget."

Ryan H: "We were given a challenge to find the lyre birds nest. I was one out of the three to find it was on top of a fern stump."

Harry: "The day ended like any other day except for the fact that I just had the most exiting day of the year. The next day I thought that it would be a normal day but I was crowded with people that wanted to know what I did."

Sarah: "The nest was built in the fork of a tree and it was made from emu feathers which had spider webs wrapped around it to stop it from falling apart and dingo hair on the inside to make it nice and soft for the chicks.

The sanctuary put little cameras inside the avaries. When there is a chick the camera is moved above the nest so the sanctuary can watch the chick to make sure there isn’t any problems.

I still can’t believe how lucky I was to get the chance to go into so many places the public never gets to go and do so many things! I wish I could do it again! THANK YOU FRIENDS OF THE HELMETED HONEYEATER AND HEALSVILLE SANCTUARY!"

Image: The Ambassadors are shown how the video monitoring equipment aids the recovery effort
Photograph by: S. Tardif

ACF Peter Rawlinson Award

The Friends were recently honoured with a Highly Commended award under the ACF Peter Rawlinson Award for our work in conservation. Congratulations to all our volunteers and staff who continue to work with such dedication and enjoyment towards the conservation of the Helmeted Honeyeater and its habitat

Minister Jennings comes to YNCR

On 14 May 08 Gavin Jennings, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Innovation (pictured in centre), visited the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve (YNCR) to see and hear first hand about this unique environment, the threats it is facing and the practical actions, planning and drive of those working toward good conservation outcomes for this area. He was shown Helmeted Honeyeaters and a Leadbeater's Possum in their natural environment. After touring the reserve, the Minister was introduced to a number of key Friends’ partner organisations and individuals, who spoke on current local issues such as access to funding opportunities and support for landholders undertaking conservation works on private properties and the linking of ‘island’ reserves and public land to establish conservation bio-links for our native species in this time of increasing pressure from climate change.

We also took the opportunity to ask the Minister to help us connect with new audiences and assist us promote two of our publications, “Yellingbo – a special place” and “Hilton finds a Home”, copies of which were presented to him on the day. Profits from these books go directly into the Friends activities in the reserve so with stock still on hand, the Friends would be pleased to hear from any of our members who are able to offer assistance with marketing through their networks.

Preliminary plans are being made to follow up this visit with an ‘update meeting’ later
in the year.

Image: Steve Mitchell (Macclesfield Landcare), Bruce Quin (DSE Field Ornithologist), Gavin Jennings and Brooke Colbert (Ministerial advisor on the Environment)
Photograph by: R Connor

Bushfire at Bunyip State Park

A fire that occurred in Bunyip State Park over the 25th -27th April 2008 is still being investigated, however we can report that it got within 4.5-5.0 kms of the Helmeted Honeyeater release sites before a fortunate weather change brought 16 mm of rain and a gentler wind, reducing fire activity and allowing it to be contained and extinguished. Emergency plans were activated as a precaution, but the birds remained safe.

Image: Tonimbuk release site 1, Bunyip State Park
Photograph by: S Tardif

Can you help?

Did you know we host corporate planting days in the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve?

Contact the Friends Coordinators, Sue or Bruce for details - 5964 8341 or heho1@optusnet.com.au

Image: Australian Unity staff planted habitat plants for their corporate voluntering day
Photograph by: B. Tardif

Going wild in April 08

Young Helmeted Honeyeaters flew off into the wild in April, blithely unaware of the critical role they must play to save their kind from extinction.

The birds, aged from just two to eight months, were the latest graduates of Healesville Sanctuary’s captive breeding program that supplements two wild populations of honeyeaters.

Six birds were released at Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, with nine others released at Bunyip State Park. The fate of the birds now rests with nature, assisted by the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria and volunteers such as the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater.

The releases take the wild population of Victoria’s bird emblem to about one hundred, a stark contrast to many years ago when there was plentiful habitat for the birds from Healesville to South Gippsland.

DSE Field Ornithologist Bruce Quin has been working to boost survival rates of the birds in the wild for more than 14 years. Supported by a dedicated group of volunteers, Bruce provides supplementary food for the released birds which enables close monitoring of the population. This assists in the long term understanding of the Helmeted Honeyeater’s habitat needs, potential predators, survival and population dispersal.

President of the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater Bob Anderson says, “It is a special feeling to be a spectator and watch released captive birds discover that the sky is now their ceiling. Being part of a program that returns birds to their natural habitat is a real joy.”

Without the commitment and cooperative approach of government and volunteers, the long-term aim to bring this species back from the brink of extinction would not be possible.

Image: A young Helmeted Honeyeater flies free
Photograph by: R. Connor