The annual BirdLife Tasmania Winter Gull Count will be conducted on Sunday 12 June 2016 - the Queen's Birthday Long Weekend - and they’d love your help!
The count will start at 9:00am and most should finish by 12 noon, and no later than 1:00pm.
The count covers coastal areas between the southern d'Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island northward to New Norfolk and eastward to Marion Bay and the Forestier and Tasman Peninsulas.
These counts were initiated by the late Dr Bill Wakefield in 1980, and, with a brief hiatus in the early 1990s, have continued to the present, which makes this the longest data set for gulls in Australia.
The 2016 Winter Gull Count will be the 33rd count for south-east Tasmania and the survey effort extends over approximately 400 kilometres of coastline.
The counts provide a valuable long-term signal on the state of the silver, kelp and Pacific gull populations in southeast Tasmania.
A detailed analysis of the data was published in an international journal, with colleagues from CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology contributing - the paper is available on the BirdLife Tasmania website here.
No prior experience with gulls is required - the count package distributed to all participants comprises an instruction sheet, an identification guide and the data sheet.
All results are circulated to all participants, Councils and other land managers such as PWS. BirdLife Tasmania is committed to sharing the results of all surveys and monitoring efforts.
Please contact Eric Woehler for more details.
Contact
Eric Woehler eric.woehler@gmail.com
