WEBVTT
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I'd like to acknowledge the Wandru Warong people as the traditional owners of the land where this recording was made.
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Over the past few months, I've been walking through reserves around Melbourne, NAM, and recording conversations along the way.
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I've met with traditional owners and First Nations peoples, conservationists, ecologists, and others who've chosen a place that matters to them.
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We walk and talk about nature, what lives there, what's changed, and what needs protecting.
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You'll hear our footsteps, the wind in the trees, the birds overhead, and the city not too far away.
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This is finding Melbourne's nature.
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Not far from Melbourne is Yellingbow Nature Conservation Reserve, one of Victoria's most important conservation areas.
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Covering over 600 hectares of forests, swamps, and winding creek lines, is home to the last population of the Hellman and Honeybeer.
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And the lowlands landmakers of the reserve sits within the Lyric Barracks landscape conservation area, which means ancestors trailed.
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Habitat is being restored, creek lines are being reconnected right across the continent.
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Recovering a species like the Hellman and Honeybeater takes a huge people.
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Population exists today as a result of decades of intensive work from habitat restoration and predator control, captive breeding, genetic management and supplementary feeding.
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But when people talk about this work, one name comes up again and again.
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Bruce Quinn.
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He's synonymous with the bird.
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Bruce is a senior ornithologist who spent decades working to understand and protect this bird.
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Soft-spoken, deeply knowledgeable, highly respected and closely connected to this place, he's become one of the people most associated with its recovery.
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Today I'm joining Bruce as he visits the supplementary feeding station scattered throughout the reserve.
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As we walk the creek lines and swamps of Yellingbow, we talk about the landscape, the people behind the work, and what it takes to bring a species back from the brink.
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What was your first interest in birds?
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Um, I think would have been in our early teens.
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We're certainly members of the Gould League.
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You and your brothers?
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Yes, yeah, mum and dad introduced us to that, and I think it was the Tiny Tips T, wasn't it, that uh used to have cards.
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Yeah.
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And uh the um then as time progressed, we both Darren and I uh my twin brother who works for BirdLife Australia, we um now um we were interested in um certainly natural history in general.
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Yep.
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If anything we're both a bit more interested in the mammal side of things, but then during my uh my honours and masters uh I chose projects that the then Victorian National Park Service felt needed doing, and uh so it was EMU's initially in the Grampians, which was a lot of fun and uh uh yeah, sorting through EMU poo to see what they'd been eating.
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And some habitat selection work, I guess, or habitat use work.
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But then the masters was on the turquoise parrot, which I had an absolute ball doing.
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It was uh it was a conservation-orientator probe check getting data for which would help manage its breeding and feeding requirements and um and and a little bit on um uh unplanned, but also their nocturnal roosting requirements, which we found a number of nocturnal roosts which we started a lot of what they were using, and so yeah, so that was great.
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And toward the end of that year, oh sorry that thesis I meant to say, um I I got my banding licence and uh and uh and that was working on Deborah Finch's uh a job which was very good for uh getting me ready for this job, a lot of hands-on colour banding, um egg measuring, uh morphometrics birds, um nest monitoring, so it was really good to get me uh sort of trained up for this job as well.
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Um it wasn't a conservation project that one, it was uh more about um uh proving laboratory studies still held in the wild for zebrafinches.
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So zebrafinches are um yeah, I don't see them much, I don't go to places where I see them much, but they're they're sort of close to my heart as well.
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Yeah, I can imagine.
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They're beautiful birds.
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Yeah, they are.
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I asked Bruce when he first got involved with helmeted honey eater.
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Uh it was August 1993.
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Wow.
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So I'm in my 33rd year.
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33 years.
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Yes, and and as said earlier, I still feel highly privileged and excited, and and uh yes.
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If you're wondering what the helmeted honey eater looks like, it's bright yellow with a black mask and a little tough to feathers for a helmet.
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But the lyric barring program was really the brainchild of a former president of the Friends of the Helmet and Honey Eater, uh Bob Anderson and uh and also uh Jeff Latter, who's an environmental consultant, and uh uh putting a proposal to having all uh crown land along creeks and uh uh creeks and ridders and within this area.
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Uh and the I suppose the mid year, I suppose we'd call it, become conservation orientated rather than grazing or land for instance.
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So um and that's what Lyric Barron's doing, and converting all those parcels of land to a have a conservation orientation, um so uh stock removal and uh uh uh fencing, re-vegetation, and um and that'll create corridors for uh hominid honey eaters but also other species to uh to uh uh move along and also creating habitat to uh larger parcels of land where say hominid honeyeaters um and for that matter the lowland lead beaters possum can sort of permanently occupy, they get connected as well, and uh the work that we do here in Yellingbow or all the habitat restoration by those organisations, plus Lyric Bowering is helping a multitude of species as well as the plants themselves and the plant communities and uh but uh former species as well.
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So it was a wonderful concept by by uh Bob and Jeff, and uh which led to the Lyric Barring program.
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So and two critically endangered species here sharing the same habitat in isolated populations that used to occur further around Melbourne.
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Is it all related to the habitat that's here?
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Well yes it is, yeah.
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So uh and Dan Harley from Dr.
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Dan Harley from Zoo's Victoria.
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Yeah, uh yes, he's um so Dan did his PhD on the Loneland Lead beaters possums here.
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Um and uh yeah they're mostly uh confined within the reserve to the Eucalyptus camp for the sedge-rich eucalyptus camphora swamp community.
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Yeah.
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Holman honeyers use that.
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Um that's been the one the habitat that's been unfortunately a lot of it is in decline, habitat condition decline.
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Holman honeyers also use manigum habitat, and I guess that's what's helped the helmet and honey eaters out more than the lowland med beaters, is they've got the other type of habitat which they can occupy, which has been more stable with respect to its health than the uh the siege-rich eclipse camp for a swamp community.
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That's the helmeted honey eater flies.
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It's not that far from the city here, is it really?
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Like it's uh no, it's not.
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It's it's uh I think we're about it's something like 55 kilometres from C BD.
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Which is amazing.
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Oh yeah.
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I thought I could hear beating there.
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We're about just straight up over.
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Oh, it just flew over here.
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Yep.
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Oh wow, we're straight on to helmeted honey eaters.
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Oh, it's safe.
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We walk to the station, they'll come to the station, so just down here.
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We're now looking at four helmeted honey eaters on a branch.
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Gosh, absolutely wonderful.
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Is that pretty common?
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Pretty common.
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Critically endangered, but we've got a little little group who are hopefully following us.
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Are they following us?
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We don't know if they know about this new station, so we'll just keep walking, hoping they'll follow us to the new station.
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Uh so you recognise that call so well.
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Yes, it was that they were doing a corroborey.
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Oh, actually, there's a bird down here, I think.
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Yep, yep, waiting for us.
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Okay.
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Yes.
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Do they do corroborey?
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Yeah, corrobore, it's sort of like a social greeting and uh where there's uh there's wing quivering, the soft uh well, I call it a chip call.
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Yep.
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And also here it is here, Ben.
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So there we go.
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So um as we've filled that up, birds have suddenly appeared.
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I I get a massive thrill, even though I've seen them a few times, I still get a thrill out of it.
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Do you?
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Yeah, absolutely, yes, yes.
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It's I'll never ever stop getting a thrill and a privilege out of seeing them.
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So when you feed them you then observe, do you?
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We're looking, we're not only looking at the birds for their health, yeah.
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Uh any injuries or illnesses, but we're also looking at the leg bands because each one is individually colour band, so they are an individual to us.
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And uh so you know all the birds at an individual level?
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Yes, that's correct.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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And for most of them we know their origins, so we know their pedigree and and and uh we call it the genotype, whether they're a uh full-blooded helmet honey, or whether there's some genetic uh variability being added by the the uh the genetic rescue program that's uh using yellow-tufted honey to give Slanticus subspecies genes.
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So these ones that we're seeing here today, are they have they been released here or are they wild birds?
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Uh it's probably a mixture of both, but because they haven't stayed, haven't quite identified their leg bands.
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But I think if we go to this station down here, sure, we'll uh we'll uh hopefully we might actually get a closer look at uh at them or longer look so that we can actually see the the leg bands.
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So uh is there any difference in the core between the Gipslandica and the not really, no.
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Maybe if you put it on a sonogram there might be something slightly different, but to my ears it's it is the same.
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Yeah, okay.
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Up here there's um a sort of mid-canopy.
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Okay.
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Yeah, so that's good to know that they're using these new stations.
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Is it trial and error when you put a new station out or do you know do you sort of work out a specific in the appropriate habitat with dense shrubbery so that there's protection for them when they're going to a station or if they need to flush because of danger, they've got something to go to, you know, close cover to go to.
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So can you recognise all the bird calls that are happening at the moment?
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Uh uh yeah, I'd like to think I could recognise most of them very readily.
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Every now and then there's certainly some that I have to have to think a little bit about.
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And uh that's that's one of the helmet honey eaters calling now.
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But we've got white-eared honey eaters calling.
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There was a bell minor calling a bit earlier on, which was a little bit of a worry because we know the uh if their numbers build up they can displace helmet and honey eaters because of the being territorial and aggressive.
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So they're actually a threat, are they?
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Yes, they are.
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Yeah.
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Is the helmet and honey eater the one that goes, that one?
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Or is that?
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Uh yeah, that was the alarm call just did did happen then.
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But uh the the there was a there's a harsh call which is said to be uh was described as being T S U P.
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To my ears it's more like a chup.
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Yeah.
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Uh that's a sort of like a contact call.
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Uh we heard the soft uh um chip calls of the carroby when we first got here.
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Is it the only bird that has a carrobbery with a collective uh no, actually New Holland honey eaters and also noisy miners have carrobberies?
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In some ways, the behaviour of the Holman honey eater, or in many ways I should say, the behaviour of the Holman honey eater is very similar to noisy miner behaviour as well.
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The the carrobbery, the uh the the bull gaping during aggression.
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Um the uh nest flight displays that helmeted honeyers sometimes do, not always, but noisy miners quite often do the display where they're almost flying.
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The bodies are almost at 45 degrees rather than being say horizontal.
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Helmet honeys do do it at times too, so two helmeted honey eaters.
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Three helmeted honey eaters have just emerged.
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Are they there's one there?
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Is there the other two three over here and one there?
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Okay, let's hope they'll come down and not try to think of a good way to describe them, they're kind of a medium-sized bird, aren't they?
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Yes, yeah, they're yeah, I'd say medium.
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Um yeah, they they're obviously not as small as thornbills, but they're um uh but but big, uh they're not as big as a black bird.
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But you can see this dense shrubbery, which is prickly currant bushes, really good for them in terms of cover nesting in, and also the berries are eaten as uh eaten when when they're the red berries.
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So uh do you think they've become so endangered because a lot of that sort of habitat's been lost that look like it's yeah absolutely yeah, so it's it's been being uh streamside and swamp habitat, it's it's prime sort of grazing agricultural land, and uh so a lot of it's been cleared across the former range of the Holmeted honey eater and uh the uh um yeah, and even within Yellingbo, even though it's a reserve, we're seeing the impacts, um channelisation of the creeks uh and uh uh planting of of pasture grasses in the past, and um that's causing big issues within the actual swamp habitat because it needs a particular regime to survive and regenerate itself.
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We're actually seeing dieback uh uh or in fact since 1992 there's been dieback happening within the swamp habitat.
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This managum, and that's the mountain swamp gum habitat, uh which is regarded as nationally significant, siege-rich eucalyptus came for a swamp habitat.
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Um uh whereas what we're in now is more the your your classic streamside habitat uh dominated by um managum, Eucalyptus feminalis.
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Uh there's some swamp gum, and in in lower-lying depression areas, there's uh there's also some mountain swamp gum.
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Um within Yellingbow, the um the uh the manor gum habitat has been far more stable as in the condition of it.
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Um stable than the mountain swamp gum habitat.
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Um, which needs a particular flooding regime uh to um to survive and regenerate itself, but too much or too little water leads to habitat condition decline.
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And where did they used to occur?
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Where was the former extent?
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Uh yeah, the the former range um was West Skipps Land Um uh and north to Healsville uh and then west to uh to Lilydale and then the sort of the southwest corner of the range was the uh sort of the upper Beaconsfield buried area.
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So um but now there's only really uh this is the last naturally occurring population but heavily managed to for it's uh to keep to keep it going and and to build uh build the numbers but all and also to add genetic diversity.
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Zoos Victoria manage a population in in the Yarrow Ranges National Park area and also um recreating a population in in the Cardinal Creek area as in the release of um birds from captivity in early May this year.
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So uh that's uh in its very early stages though, and uh bird releases from captivity will happen there um uh next autumn.
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Yeah, so there's really only uh three areas that they're they now occur in the wild.
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Uh the young bale, the last naturally occurring population, and then two um recreated uh populations.
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Yeah, sorry, Ash Wednesday really led to the demise of the um the the cockatoo and upper Beaconsfield populations.
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So they held in right up until Ash Wednesday in 83.
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Yes, they were still at both Cockatoo and Upper Beaconsfield.
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So how many birds are left in the wild now?
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Yeah, so we we feel there's about it will be if you've add the three uh populations together, it's still only about 230 birds.
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Yeah, right.
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So uh and that's global population, that's everything.
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Yes, in the wild.
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In the wild, yeah.
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And then there's there's the captive population, which is where the really the genetic rescue was initiated um in captivity via the the crossing of the two subspecies.
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Yes.
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Um the uh and then birds were released out here and then into that Yarra Rangers area that I was talking about, and uh uh and also now Cardinia Creek.
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Here we go, we've got birds right next to us around to us.
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And that shades the call well.
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Just putting in the wombaroo, is it?
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Yeah, this is the wombaroo, the the honey eater and lorikeet mixture, yeah.
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Which has got it's obviously got sugars in it, but it's also got vitamins and uh and uh oops, sorry, flying right up to your hands.
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Yeah, we might uh get out here.
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We'll step back again and just these two birds in there are 2022 release birds.
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The one that's begging, because he's more subordinate, is a 2025 release bird, the one that's that's that's left at the station.
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So that's a begging call, is it?
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Yes, yeah.
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And is he saying please let me get some food?
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Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, he's he's acting submissive and uh hoping to reduce the aggression.
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Yeah, right.
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Oh that's a gosh calling, that's why the the alarm calls of and that and that bird suddenly decided to Would they prey on a helmet at time yet?
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Yeah, they do, yeah, absolutely.
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Yeah, so the need for the Gippslandicus the g the genetic rescue is because they the the current He Hope.
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Population doesn't have enough genetics.
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Yeah, there was inbreeding depression, so we're trying to reverse that by adding genetic diversity, by adding uh Gipslandicus genes to the uh the hominhone population.
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And if you didn't do that, would they just bottleneck and go extinct?
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Absolutely, yeah.
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And uh an easy way to think of it is um that the uh the the most inbred birds were only producing about a tenth of the number of fledglings across their life span as the most genetically diverse Holman Honeyaters were.
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So that's the the um the effect the inbreeding was having.
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So that's that was within the Holbert and Honeyder population pre-genetic rescue, which commenced here in uh in uh September 2019 when um captive bred birds and Gipslanticus were released into uh into Yellingbow.
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Bruce told me a little bit about how insects and plants are important food for helmet honey eaters.
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Insects can create sugary exudates, um the uh the lerp, the sugary coating on the on the uh on the larvae of those uh cillid insects they're called, the family of psyllid insects, um, the uh honeydew, which I my understanding is it's a waste product from an insect that's again been taking eucalypt uh phlowem sap.
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And uh then there's the manna, which which we see them use from manna gums, swamp gums, mountain swamp gums.
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There's sort of this little secretion produced uh in response to insect attack.
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So um, yeah, so it's like a dripping of sap sort of thing, isn't it?
00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:10.559
Yes, yeah, it's uh it's a reasonably viscous liquid.
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Yeah.
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That uh I have admit I've sampled it myself, I can see why the honey eaters like it.
00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:17.119
It's pretty good, is it?
00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:18.880
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:22.240
So uh um is there a future market in Manor?
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:24.960
There could well be, yeah.
00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:28.880
What's what's the lowest the bird's number got to?
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:31.920
Uh yeah, 60 on two separate occasions.
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:39.440
Yeah, so here we go, we've through here, through the through the the dense shrubbery or the classic nesting habitat.
00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:41.920
It's quite tough to weigh this one.
00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:57.200
Um yeah, so dense shrubbery is needed for their uh really needed, uh at least here at Yellingba, well I suppose anywhere, but it works well here because of the it conceals the nests.
00:24:57.359 --> 00:24:57.920
Hmm.
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:11.119
Before we finish up, it's worth saying that everything you've heard about the species in this episode is because of a huge amount of work behind the scenes of people trying to protect them.
00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:18.079
The recovery of the helmeted honey eater and the lowland lead beaters possum is a genuinely collective effort.
00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:39.359
It involves agencies like Dika, Zeus Victoria, Parks Victoria, Melbourne Water, and the amazing Friends of the Helmeted Honey Eater, a great group, along with researchers, volunteers, friends of the lead beaters' possum, local landholders who all work together over decades to keep these species alive in the landscape.
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:49.119
There's been incredible support from so many groups, including the Judith Early Safes Wildlife Fund, who helped secure one of the properties that we recorded this episode on.
00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.000
Bruce is an amazing person.
00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:58.640
He's done so much work in this field, and he understands the birds better than anyone, I dare say.
00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:04.400
Thank you for joining us, and let's say goodbye to Bruce and thank him for all his efforts.
00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:05.599
You're most welcome, Ben.
00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:28.960
It's been a privilege to be interviewed by you and have you accompany me and uh and uh see the habitat and the birds and uh and uh yes, I'll I'll I'm I'm just uh I'm just uh uh thrilled that I've been able to uh have it today and show you today what we've been doing and uh but also uh talk about the private room.
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:35.759
Just a few months after recording this, Bruce ended up retiring a senior ornithologist.
00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:44.640
But don't worry, he's not lost from the bird world, he's still out there doing lots of birding and volunteering regularly with the Helmeted Honey Eaters.
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:47.519
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:55.920
If you want to hear more episodes, check out finding Melbourne'sNature.com or check us out on your favourite streaming services.
00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:01.200
Also, keen to hear your feedback and keen to hear where you think I should head next.
00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:02.640
Thanks so much for listening.
00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:05.119
It's been a pleasure to spend some time with you.
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:07.279
Until the next walk
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:07.200
I'd like to acknowledge the Wandru Warong people as the traditional owners of the land where this recording was made.
00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:18.160
Over the past few months, I've been walking through reserves around Melbourne, NAM, and recording conversations along the way.
00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:28.079
I've met with traditional owners and First Nations peoples, conservationists, ecologists, and others who've chosen a place that matters to them.
00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:35.280
We walk and talk about nature, what lives there, what's changed, and what needs protecting.
00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:43.439
You'll hear our footsteps, the wind in the trees, the birds overhead, and the city not too far away.
00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:47.439
This is finding Melbourne's nature.
00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:59.679
Not far from Melbourne is Yellingbow Nature Conservation Reserve, one of Victoria's most important conservation areas.
00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:07.680
Covering over 600 hectares of forests, swamps, and winding creek lines, is home to the last population of the Hellman and Honeybeer.
00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:16.959
And the lowlands landmakers of the reserve sits within the Lyric Barracks landscape conservation area, which means ancestors trailed.
00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:24.879
Habitat is being restored, creek lines are being reconnected right across the continent.
00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:29.359
Recovering a species like the Hellman and Honeybeater takes a huge people.
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:40.799
Population exists today as a result of decades of intensive work from habitat restoration and predator control, captive breeding, genetic management and supplementary feeding.
00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:45.840
But when people talk about this work, one name comes up again and again.
00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:47.040
Bruce Quinn.
00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:48.959
He's synonymous with the bird.
00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:54.799
Bruce is a senior ornithologist who spent decades working to understand and protect this bird.
00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:04.560
Soft-spoken, deeply knowledgeable, highly respected and closely connected to this place, he's become one of the people most associated with its recovery.
00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:10.400
Today I'm joining Bruce as he visits the supplementary feeding station scattered throughout the reserve.
00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:20.159
As we walk the creek lines and swamps of Yellingbow, we talk about the landscape, the people behind the work, and what it takes to bring a species back from the brink.
00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:26.479
What was your first interest in birds?
00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:30.080
Um, I think would have been in our early teens.
00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.159
We're certainly members of the Gould League.
00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:32.960
You and your brothers?
00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:41.680
Yes, yeah, mum and dad introduced us to that, and I think it was the Tiny Tips T, wasn't it, that uh used to have cards.
00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:42.479
Yeah.
00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:58.719
And uh the um then as time progressed, we both Darren and I uh my twin brother who works for BirdLife Australia, we um now um we were interested in um certainly natural history in general.
00:02:58.879 --> 00:02:59.280
Yep.
00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:27.759
If anything we're both a bit more interested in the mammal side of things, but then during my uh my honours and masters uh I chose projects that the then Victorian National Park Service felt needed doing, and uh so it was EMU's initially in the Grampians, which was a lot of fun and uh uh yeah, sorting through EMU poo to see what they'd been eating.
00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:33.120
And some habitat selection work, I guess, or habitat use work.
00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:40.879
But then the masters was on the turquoise parrot, which I had an absolute ball doing.
00:03:40.960 --> 00:04:06.560
It was uh it was a conservation-orientator probe check getting data for which would help manage its breeding and feeding requirements and um and and a little bit on um uh unplanned, but also their nocturnal roosting requirements, which we found a number of nocturnal roosts which we started a lot of what they were using, and so yeah, so that was great.
00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:44.560
And toward the end of that year, oh sorry that thesis I meant to say, um I I got my banding licence and uh and uh and that was working on Deborah Finch's uh a job which was very good for uh getting me ready for this job, a lot of hands-on colour banding, um egg measuring, uh morphometrics birds, um nest monitoring, so it was really good to get me uh sort of trained up for this job as well.
00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:58.480
Um it wasn't a conservation project that one, it was uh more about um uh proving laboratory studies still held in the wild for zebrafinches.
00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:07.199
So zebrafinches are um yeah, I don't see them much, I don't go to places where I see them much, but they're they're sort of close to my heart as well.
00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:08.560
Yeah, I can imagine.
00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:09.680
They're beautiful birds.
00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:10.879
Yeah, they are.
00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:15.279
I asked Bruce when he first got involved with helmeted honey eater.
00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:18.879
Uh it was August 1993.
00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:19.279
Wow.
00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:22.079
So I'm in my 33rd year.
00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:23.519
33 years.
00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:32.000
Yes, and and as said earlier, I still feel highly privileged and excited, and and uh yes.
00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:39.040
If you're wondering what the helmeted honey eater looks like, it's bright yellow with a black mask and a little tough to feathers for a helmet.
00:05:39.279 --> 00:06:10.639
But the lyric barring program was really the brainchild of a former president of the Friends of the Helmet and Honey Eater, uh Bob Anderson and uh and also uh Jeff Latter, who's an environmental consultant, and uh uh putting a proposal to having all uh crown land along creeks and uh uh creeks and ridders and within this area.
00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:24.959
Uh and the I suppose the mid year, I suppose we'd call it, become conservation orientated rather than grazing or land for instance.
00:06:25.199 --> 00:07:28.000
So um and that's what Lyric Barron's doing, and converting all those parcels of land to a have a conservation orientation, um so uh stock removal and uh uh uh fencing, re-vegetation, and um and that'll create corridors for uh hominid honey eaters but also other species to uh to uh uh move along and also creating habitat to uh larger parcels of land where say hominid honeyeaters um and for that matter the lowland lead beaters possum can sort of permanently occupy, they get connected as well, and uh the work that we do here in Yellingbow or all the habitat restoration by those organisations, plus Lyric Bowering is helping a multitude of species as well as the plants themselves and the plant communities and uh but uh former species as well.
00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:37.839
So it was a wonderful concept by by uh Bob and Jeff, and uh which led to the Lyric Barring program.
00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:49.120
So and two critically endangered species here sharing the same habitat in isolated populations that used to occur further around Melbourne.
00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.160
Is it all related to the habitat that's here?
00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:54.240
Well yes it is, yeah.
00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:58.160
So uh and Dan Harley from Dr.
00:07:58.240 --> 00:07:59.839
Dan Harley from Zoo's Victoria.
00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:07.519
Yeah, uh yes, he's um so Dan did his PhD on the Loneland Lead beaters possums here.
00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:18.079
Um and uh yeah they're mostly uh confined within the reserve to the Eucalyptus camp for the sedge-rich eucalyptus camphora swamp community.
00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:18.240
Yeah.
00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:20.560
Holman honeyers use that.
00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:29.519
Um that's been the one the habitat that's been unfortunately a lot of it is in decline, habitat condition decline.
00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:51.519
Holman honeyers also use manigum habitat, and I guess that's what's helped the helmet and honey eaters out more than the lowland med beaters, is they've got the other type of habitat which they can occupy, which has been more stable with respect to its health than the uh the siege-rich eclipse camp for a swamp community.
00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:54.799
That's the helmeted honey eater flies.
00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:57.200
It's not that far from the city here, is it really?
00:08:57.279 --> 00:08:59.120
Like it's uh no, it's not.
00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:03.440
It's it's uh I think we're about it's something like 55 kilometres from C BD.
00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:04.720
Which is amazing.
00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:10.080
Oh yeah.
00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:13.600
I thought I could hear beating there.
00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:16.480
We're about just straight up over.
00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:17.600
Oh, it just flew over here.
00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:19.279
Yep.
00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.159
Oh wow, we're straight on to helmeted honey eaters.
00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:23.120
Oh, it's safe.
00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:27.279
We walk to the station, they'll come to the station, so just down here.
00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:31.200
We're now looking at four helmeted honey eaters on a branch.
00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:32.960
Gosh, absolutely wonderful.
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:34.799
Is that pretty common?
00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:36.879
Pretty common.
00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:42.879
Critically endangered, but we've got a little little group who are hopefully following us.
00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:43.679
Are they following us?
00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:50.639
We don't know if they know about this new station, so we'll just keep walking, hoping they'll follow us to the new station.
00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:53.440
Uh so you recognise that call so well.
00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:55.840
Yes, it was that they were doing a corroborey.
00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:57.919
Oh, actually, there's a bird down here, I think.
00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:00.320
Yep, yep, waiting for us.
00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:00.879
Okay.
00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:02.799
Yes.
00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:04.320
Do they do corroborey?
00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:15.360
Yeah, corrobore, it's sort of like a social greeting and uh where there's uh there's wing quivering, the soft uh well, I call it a chip call.
00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:15.919
Yep.
00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.240
And also here it is here, Ben.
00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:19.840
So there we go.
00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.480
So um as we've filled that up, birds have suddenly appeared.
00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:28.559
I I get a massive thrill, even though I've seen them a few times, I still get a thrill out of it.
00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:28.799
Do you?
00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:31.200
Yeah, absolutely, yes, yes.
00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:38.879
It's I'll never ever stop getting a thrill and a privilege out of seeing them.
00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:41.519
So when you feed them you then observe, do you?
00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:46.080
We're looking, we're not only looking at the birds for their health, yeah.
00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:57.360
Uh any injuries or illnesses, but we're also looking at the leg bands because each one is individually colour band, so they are an individual to us.
00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:01.759
And uh so you know all the birds at an individual level?
00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:03.039
Yes, that's correct.
00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:03.679
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:28.240
And for most of them we know their origins, so we know their pedigree and and and uh we call it the genotype, whether they're a uh full-blooded helmet honey, or whether there's some genetic uh variability being added by the the uh the genetic rescue program that's uh using yellow-tufted honey to give Slanticus subspecies genes.
00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:34.879
So these ones that we're seeing here today, are they have they been released here or are they wild birds?
00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:41.279
Uh it's probably a mixture of both, but because they haven't stayed, haven't quite identified their leg bands.
00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:55.120
But I think if we go to this station down here, sure, we'll uh we'll uh hopefully we might actually get a closer look at uh at them or longer look so that we can actually see the the leg bands.
00:11:55.360 --> 00:12:01.840
So uh is there any difference in the core between the Gipslandica and the not really, no.
00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:09.759
Maybe if you put it on a sonogram there might be something slightly different, but to my ears it's it is the same.
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:10.639
Yeah, okay.
00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.639
Up here there's um a sort of mid-canopy.
00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:15.200
Okay.
00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:21.279
Yeah, so that's good to know that they're using these new stations.
00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:43.919
Is it trial and error when you put a new station out or do you know do you sort of work out a specific in the appropriate habitat with dense shrubbery so that there's protection for them when they're going to a station or if they need to flush because of danger, they've got something to go to, you know, close cover to go to.
00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:48.559
So can you recognise all the bird calls that are happening at the moment?
00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:54.639
Uh uh yeah, I'd like to think I could recognise most of them very readily.
00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:59.039
Every now and then there's certainly some that I have to have to think a little bit about.
00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:06.879
And uh that's that's one of the helmet honey eaters calling now.
00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:10.159
But we've got white-eared honey eaters calling.
00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:22.960
There was a bell minor calling a bit earlier on, which was a little bit of a worry because we know the uh if their numbers build up they can displace helmet and honey eaters because of the being territorial and aggressive.
00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:24.639
So they're actually a threat, are they?
00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:25.919
Yes, they are.
00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:26.320
Yeah.
00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.159
Is the helmet and honey eater the one that goes, that one?
00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:30.639
Or is that?
00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:34.399
Uh yeah, that was the alarm call just did did happen then.
00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:44.000
But uh the the there was a there's a harsh call which is said to be uh was described as being T S U P.
00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:46.960
To my ears it's more like a chup.
00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:47.600
Yeah.
00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:50.320
Uh that's a sort of like a contact call.
00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:58.639
Uh we heard the soft uh um chip calls of the carroby when we first got here.
00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:10.960
Is it the only bird that has a carrobbery with a collective uh no, actually New Holland honey eaters and also noisy miners have carrobberies?
00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:22.000
In some ways, the behaviour of the Holman honey eater, or in many ways I should say, the behaviour of the Holman honey eater is very similar to noisy miner behaviour as well.
00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:28.320
The the carrobbery, the uh the the bull gaping during aggression.
00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:42.639
Um the uh nest flight displays that helmeted honeyers sometimes do, not always, but noisy miners quite often do the display where they're almost flying.
00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:48.399
The bodies are almost at 45 degrees rather than being say horizontal.
00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:54.240
Helmet honeys do do it at times too, so two helmeted honey eaters.
00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:56.320
Three helmeted honey eaters have just emerged.
00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:58.639
Are they there's one there?
00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:01.519
Is there the other two three over here and one there?
00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:11.120
Okay, let's hope they'll come down and not try to think of a good way to describe them, they're kind of a medium-sized bird, aren't they?
00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:14.159
Yes, yeah, they're yeah, I'd say medium.
00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:23.440
Um yeah, they they're obviously not as small as thornbills, but they're um uh but but big, uh they're not as big as a black bird.
00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:39.840
But you can see this dense shrubbery, which is prickly currant bushes, really good for them in terms of cover nesting in, and also the berries are eaten as uh eaten when when they're the red berries.
00:15:39.919 --> 00:16:37.279
So uh do you think they've become so endangered because a lot of that sort of habitat's been lost that look like it's yeah absolutely yeah, so it's it's been being uh streamside and swamp habitat, it's it's prime sort of grazing agricultural land, and uh so a lot of it's been cleared across the former range of the Holmeted honey eater and uh the uh um yeah, and even within Yellingbo, even though it's a reserve, we're seeing the impacts, um channelisation of the creeks uh and uh uh planting of of pasture grasses in the past, and um that's causing big issues within the actual swamp habitat because it needs a particular regime to survive and regenerate itself.
00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:47.679
We're actually seeing dieback uh uh or in fact since 1992 there's been dieback happening within the swamp habitat.
00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:58.720
This managum, and that's the mountain swamp gum habitat, uh which is regarded as nationally significant, siege-rich eucalyptus came for a swamp habitat.
00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:10.480
Um uh whereas what we're in now is more the your your classic streamside habitat uh dominated by um managum, Eucalyptus feminalis.
00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:20.160
Uh there's some swamp gum, and in in lower-lying depression areas, there's uh there's also some mountain swamp gum.
00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:30.000
Um within Yellingbow, the um the uh the manor gum habitat has been far more stable as in the condition of it.
00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:35.119
Um stable than the mountain swamp gum habitat.
00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:52.079
Um, which needs a particular flooding regime uh to um to survive and regenerate itself, but too much or too little water leads to habitat condition decline.
00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:53.759
And where did they used to occur?
00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:55.200
Where was the former extent?
00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:19.440
Uh yeah, the the former range um was West Skipps Land Um uh and north to Healsville uh and then west to uh to Lilydale and then the sort of the southwest corner of the range was the uh sort of the upper Beaconsfield buried area.
00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:36.079
So um but now there's only really uh this is the last naturally occurring population but heavily managed to for it's uh to keep to keep it going and and to build uh build the numbers but all and also to add genetic diversity.
00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:58.240
Zoos Victoria manage a population in in the Yarrow Ranges National Park area and also um recreating a population in in the Cardinal Creek area as in the release of um birds from captivity in early May this year.
00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:09.359
So uh that's uh in its very early stages though, and uh bird releases from captivity will happen there um uh next autumn.
00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:16.000
Yeah, so there's really only uh three areas that they're they now occur in the wild.
00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:24.160
Uh the young bale, the last naturally occurring population, and then two um recreated uh populations.
00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:32.400
Yeah, sorry, Ash Wednesday really led to the demise of the um the the cockatoo and upper Beaconsfield populations.
00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:35.680
So they held in right up until Ash Wednesday in 83.
00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:39.680
Yes, they were still at both Cockatoo and Upper Beaconsfield.
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:42.319
So how many birds are left in the wild now?
00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:56.000
Yeah, so we we feel there's about it will be if you've add the three uh populations together, it's still only about 230 birds.
00:19:56.319 --> 00:19:57.039
Yeah, right.
00:19:57.200 --> 00:19:59.839
So uh and that's global population, that's everything.
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:01.599
Yes, in the wild.
00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:02.880
In the wild, yeah.
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:18.319
And then there's there's the captive population, which is where the really the genetic rescue was initiated um in captivity via the the crossing of the two subspecies.
00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:19.119
Yes.
00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:31.680
Um the uh and then birds were released out here and then into that Yarra Rangers area that I was talking about, and uh uh and also now Cardinia Creek.
00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:34.720
Here we go, we've got birds right next to us around to us.
00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:36.400
And that shades the call well.
00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:39.440
Just putting in the wombaroo, is it?
00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:44.640
Yeah, this is the wombaroo, the the honey eater and lorikeet mixture, yeah.
00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:54.400
Which has got it's obviously got sugars in it, but it's also got vitamins and uh and uh oops, sorry, flying right up to your hands.
00:20:55.359 --> 00:20:57.599
Yeah, we might uh get out here.
00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:10.400
We'll step back again and just these two birds in there are 2022 release birds.
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:20.160
The one that's begging, because he's more subordinate, is a 2025 release bird, the one that's that's that's left at the station.
00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:24.079
So that's a begging call, is it?
00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:25.599
Yes, yeah.
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:29.279
And is he saying please let me get some food?
00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:30.240
Yeah, exactly.
00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:36.079
Yeah, he's he's acting submissive and uh hoping to reduce the aggression.
00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:37.279
Yeah, right.
00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:47.920
Oh that's a gosh calling, that's why the the alarm calls of and that and that bird suddenly decided to Would they prey on a helmet at time yet?
00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:49.920
Yeah, they do, yeah, absolutely.
00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:59.759
Yeah, so the need for the Gippslandicus the g the genetic rescue is because they the the current He Hope.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:01.920
Population doesn't have enough genetics.
00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:14.880
Yeah, there was inbreeding depression, so we're trying to reverse that by adding genetic diversity, by adding uh Gipslandicus genes to the uh the hominhone population.
00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:18.000
And if you didn't do that, would they just bottleneck and go extinct?
00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:19.599
Absolutely, yeah.
00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:39.759
And uh an easy way to think of it is um that the uh the the most inbred birds were only producing about a tenth of the number of fledglings across their life span as the most genetically diverse Holman Honeyaters were.
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:44.000
So that's the the um the effect the inbreeding was having.
00:22:44.480 --> 00:23:04.319
So that's that was within the Holbert and Honeyder population pre-genetic rescue, which commenced here in uh in uh September 2019 when um captive bred birds and Gipslanticus were released into uh into Yellingbow.
00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:11.359
Bruce told me a little bit about how insects and plants are important food for helmet honey eaters.
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:43.680
Insects can create sugary exudates, um the uh the lerp, the sugary coating on the on the uh on the larvae of those uh cillid insects they're called, the family of psyllid insects, um, the uh honeydew, which I my understanding is it's a waste product from an insect that's again been taking eucalypt uh phlowem sap.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:54.640
And uh then there's the manna, which which we see them use from manna gums, swamp gums, mountain swamp gums.
00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:01.200
There's sort of this little secretion produced uh in response to insect attack.
00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:06.079
So um, yeah, so it's like a dripping of sap sort of thing, isn't it?
00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:10.559
Yes, yeah, it's uh it's a reasonably viscous liquid.
00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:11.039
Yeah.
00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:15.839
That uh I have admit I've sampled it myself, I can see why the honey eaters like it.
00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:17.119
It's pretty good, is it?
00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:18.880
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:22.240
So uh um is there a future market in Manor?
00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:24.960
There could well be, yeah.
00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:28.880
What's what's the lowest the bird's number got to?
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:31.920
Uh yeah, 60 on two separate occasions.
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:39.440
Yeah, so here we go, we've through here, through the through the the dense shrubbery or the classic nesting habitat.
00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:41.920
It's quite tough to weigh this one.
00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:57.200
Um yeah, so dense shrubbery is needed for their uh really needed, uh at least here at Yellingba, well I suppose anywhere, but it works well here because of the it conceals the nests.
00:24:57.359 --> 00:24:57.920
Hmm.
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:11.119
Before we finish up, it's worth saying that everything you've heard about the species in this episode is because of a huge amount of work behind the scenes of people trying to protect them.
00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:18.079
The recovery of the helmeted honey eater and the lowland lead beaters possum is a genuinely collective effort.
00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:39.359
It involves agencies like Dika, Zeus Victoria, Parks Victoria, Melbourne Water, and the amazing Friends of the Helmeted Honey Eater, a great group, along with researchers, volunteers, friends of the lead beaters' possum, local landholders who all work together over decades to keep these species alive in the landscape.
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:49.119
There's been incredible support from so many groups, including the Judith Early Safes Wildlife Fund, who helped secure one of the properties that we recorded this episode on.
00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.000
Bruce is an amazing person.
00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:58.640
He's done so much work in this field, and he understands the birds better than anyone, I dare say.
00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:04.400
Thank you for joining us, and let's say goodbye to Bruce and thank him for all his efforts.
00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:05.599
You're most welcome, Ben.
00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:28.960
It's been a privilege to be interviewed by you and have you accompany me and uh and uh see the habitat and the birds and uh and uh yes, I'll I'll I'm I'm just uh I'm just uh uh thrilled that I've been able to uh have it today and show you today what we've been doing and uh but also uh talk about the private room.
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:35.759
Just a few months after recording this, Bruce ended up retiring a senior ornithologist.
00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:44.640
But don't worry, he's not lost from the bird world, he's still out there doing lots of birding and volunteering regularly with the Helmeted Honey Eaters.
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:47.519
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:55.920
If you want to hear more episodes, check out finding Melbourne'sNature.com or check us out on your favourite streaming services.
00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:01.200
Also, keen to hear your feedback and keen to hear where you think I should head next.
00:27:01.359 --> 00:27:02.640
Thanks so much for listening.
00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:05.119
It's been a pleasure to spend some time with you.
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:07.279
Until the next walk
