“Her behaviour is much like that of a regular long distance migrant, chasing warmth, with stopovers along a flyway.”

It’s 2142 kms and counting for our precious little Marcelina.

paintedsnipe.com.au/2024/05/15/mar…

Here I am releasing the amazing Marcelina on Jan. 3rd. She’s since been giving us a great tour of Australia’s inland wetlands, from SA’s Goyder Lagoon to the NT’s Barkly Tableland. She’s covered about 2500 kms. Without tracking, we’d only know of two sites nationally this year.

BOOOOM, Marcelina has just pushed another 527 kms northwest, currently on the Newcastle Creek between Daly Waters and Tennant Creek! She is now over 2100 kms from her spring home in Balranald. This is incredible to witness.

There is so much to love about the #MaryRiver #turtle (Elusor macrurus) – from butt-breathing to green facial hair – but it is one #Australia 's most threatened freshwater turtles.

Luckily, a small town has banded together to save this incredible species: ausgeo.co/tiaroturtle

It was so incredible to be able to learn from Naoki Katayama at today's CBCS seminar! Thank you so much for sharing Naoki Katayama. If you're interested in tuning in for our next seminar, you can find the Zoom link here: bit.ly/CBCSseminars

BREAKING NEWS: Marcelina has just pushed another 700 km further north and is now on the Barkly Tableland in the NT. She is now 1655 km from where we caught her in January near Balranald. Her last fixes were from the Goyder Lagoon in SA back in March. BirdLife Australia

Could this be the finest photograph ever taken of the endangered Australian Painted-snipe? 👏👏👏
December 2023, Sandy Camp, Brisbane
📷 Peter Sternes
Insta: @biomephotography

BREAKING NEWS: GLORIA IS BACK!!!!!

After three and a half months with no location data, last night we received three new fixes from about 100 km north of Birdsville in QLD. It looks like her and Marcelina have similar taste for the channel country. GO GLORIA! BirdLife Australia

16 years ago, I created a Facebook group 'Birds Bangladesh' just for fun and to exchange birdwatching info, which gradually evolved into nation's largest citizen-science-driven online database for biodiversity. Several papers were published using that dataset; here is how:

Unfortunately we have lost contact with Gloria, the first APS to be tracked, but we the insights are 👌🏽We have hundreds of fixes of her roosting in areas nobody would have thought to look for these cryptic birds, often more than 300 metres from water.

paintedsnipe.com.au/2024/04/02/glo…

Here's some more info on the amazing journey we have just witnessed ...

paintedsnipe.com.au/2024/03/31/mar…

👀 Where have all the APS gone? 👀

We had a good spring, with over 50 birds recorded nationally across 23 sites but over the past three months there’s only been two records, each of just one bird (Pilliga, NSW and Tennant Creek, NT: paintedsnipe.com.au/recent-sightin…). 📷 Veeraj Sharma

It would be wonderful if we could get APS surveys done in this area. Go on, plan a trip! 😀 For more info: datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet…

Marcelina has homed in on the Goyder Lagoon at Clifton Hills Station, beside the Birdsville track in SA. It’s recognised as an Important Bird Area, home to Grey Grasswren, Yellow Chat and loads of waterbirds, including previous records of APS.

👀Marcelina’s incredible northward journey continues! 👀
She’s just arrived on the Warburton Creek in the far north-east of SA, 950 km from where we caught her on Jan. 3rd near Balranald. Documenting long distance APS movements for the first time is all thanks to crowdfunding! 🙏

So thrilled! Have to admit I didn’t hold out much hope of a successful outcome when I watched this pair back around new year. Huge congrats to all in the community that looked out for this gorgeous family.

Australia is in its Swiftie Era – with one swiftie set to start her tour here very soon, our very own swiftie, the Swift Parrot, is beginning its annual migration to the mainland!

📸Swift Parrots by Bianca Vilculescu, Ken Griffiths, Ozflash, RixiPix & DrFerry

One million #frogs !!!! That’s right, thanks to all the amazing people recording calling frogs across Australia with the FrogID app, we have now amassed a database of over one million frog records!!!! 🎉🎊👏🥳🎈🐸 smh.com.au/environment/co…