NOCTURNAL SPOTLIGHTING FOR FAUNA
with ecologist Louise Boscacci for gliders, bats and other nocturnal fauna. Children and families joined Bundanon’s Education Manager Mary Preece on a spotlight search for frogs, marsupials and other nocturnal fauna.
As a partner organisation in the Shoalhaven Science Hub, Bundanon is committed to engaging the community in learning about science. The Hub is formed with partners South East Local Land Services, Landcare Australia, the University of Wollongong and local schools.
Partnership Activities
Bundanon, Landcare Australia and South East Land Care are partnering to increase biodiversity and reconnect native habitat in the Shoalhaven River catchment of NSW with the Living Landscape project, which focuses on lantana clearing and revegetation. The University of Wollongong conducts field work with their students which feeds data and research into the knowledge base of the properties.
Bundanon successfully conducted the Siteworks for Schools event and Bio Blitz in 2014, delivering a series of programs connecting arts and sciences including flora and fauna surveys, and education programs about biodiversity and land regeneration.
Bundanon’s Touched by the Earth program involves hundreds of Shoalhaven school students in a cross-curricular arts and sciences program informed by nature-based education, working with scientists and artists.
The partners have worked together in 2015 with high schools to create the Living Landscape Case Study, which enables school students to learn through site-based field activities. Bundanon works with a numbers of tourist groups and seniors organisations to encourage cultural and environmental participation.
Science Week 2015
Regional high school science students and science teachers spent a day participating in field work activities during Science Week involving: geology, bush regeneration, species preservation, biodiversity mapping, led by specialist facilitators.
These field days give the participants an opportunity to contribute to scientific surveys, learning scientific methods and processes. The participants were mentored through a sequence of survey and field work activities, which include flora surveys of riparian transects and geological mapping.
An additional program for adult learners from the University of the 3rd Age was held at Bundanon with orchid expert Alan Stephenson to view native orchids and discuss orchid habitats.
Bioblitz
The Bioblitz invited the public to undertake a series of walks in the company of specialist ecologists and explored particular aspects of the Bundanon site.
Beginning with nocturnal spotlighting and continuing throughout Sunday, this citizen science activity engaged participants in different habitats at Bundanon, documenting the presence of orchids and other flora as well as fish, birds and marsupials, led by ecologists and specialists.
Using systematic biological procedures participants were involved in a genuine scientific survey, uploaded to the Atlas of Living Australia, to support and enhance the 2011 Bundanon Land Management Plan, the ongoing Living Landscape project, whilst contributing to the knowledge base of the Greater Eastern Ranges Initiative.
FISH FINDERS FOR KIDS & ADULTS
with Ivars Reinfelds, Senior Research Scientist from NSW Office of Water and Geoff Barrett from NSW Department of Primary Industries-Water & Fisheries for a fascinating search for life in the Shoalhaven River from shore and boat.
ORCHIDS
exploration of orchid species with experts Alan Stephenson with Denis Wilson. Alan is the expert on orchids of the Shoalhaven and has written books and reports about these beautiful flora.
FLORA FINDERS
explored and documented the diverse flora species at Bundanon with Vegetation Ecologist Kirsten Vine, Valda Corrigan and Phil Craven from National Parks and Wildlife Service, and Mountain Echo’s Ryan Hogan & Katie Wright.
KIDS FLORA FINDERS
with Mountain Echo’s Katie Wright and education officers collected specimens to bring back to the BioBlitz tent for identification.
BIRDS
and a survey of avian fauna through bird calls and sightings with Barry Virtue from Bird Life Shoalhaven.
THEMED WALKS included an Indigenous Plant Use Walk with Clive & Julie Freeman. A four-hour Circuit Walk passed through several of Bundanon’s vegetation communities including ridge lines, escarpment and rainforest gullies, all the way to Haunted Point and returning via the Cedar Walk.
A one and a half hour guided Kids & Families Circuit Walk along the River Walk to Bundanon Beach back up through the Cedar Walk and Single Man’s Hut with Bundanon’s education team. Bats & The Bush Walk with Australia’s leading researcher into the vulnerable Grey-Headed Flying Fox, Dr Peggy Eby, discovering the links between flora and fauna and the delicate balance biodiversity. It was during this walk that a group encountered a very rare sighting of two red-belly black snakes involved in a territorial duel, caught on video by Mike Leggett.
PARTICIPANTS INCLUDED: Dr Ivars Reinfelds, Geoff Barrett, Alan Stephenson, Barry Virtue, Katie Wright and Ryan Hogan – Mountain Echo Landscape and Horticulture. Phil Craven and Valda Corrigan, Kirsten Vine, Clive and Julie Freeman, Ralph Dixon, Louise Boscacci.
