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Contact Call
Conservation Matters: March 2026
Critics say the federal government is weakening environmental protections – allowing unlawful land clearing, mining exemptions, and habitat destruction – prioritising industry over biodiversity, despite known risks, inadequate regulation, and growing concern from conservation groups.
Peter Valentine
Mar 317 min read
Tracking change in the Wet Tropics: what long-term bowerbird monitoring is revealing
In the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland, BirdLife Northern Queensland has been undertaking exactly this kind of work through long-term monitoring of bowerbirds and other rainforest specialists – species that are difficult to survey, but potentially sensitive indicators of environmental change.
Dominic Chaplin
Feb 264 min read
Emergency conservation action for owl survival
Recently in Perth, Western Australia (WA) many dead Masked Owls were tested, and all were found to have these SGAR chemicals in their bodies. Other countries banned these chemicals long ago, but Australia has a pathetic excuse for a pesticide control system: the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicine Authority (APVMA), the members of which represent the commercial interests of the manufacturers and sellers of these deadly chemicals.
Peter Valentine
Feb 254 min read
Despatches from across the ditch 4: A New Zealand Dotterel
I have been working on an article on the recent survey in New Zealand of the Australasian Bittern. However, the final data from the survey has not been forthcoming and in the interim I am presenting a review of an interesting endemic New Zealand species.
Gary & Robyn Wilson
Feb 64 min read
Wet season! Restless binoculars: going troppo?
Why not take part in the Summer 2026 Birds in Backyards survey right where you live? Each survey takes just 20 minutes and there is a clear, easy-to-follow instruction video on the BIBY website to get you started.
Ceri Pearce
Jan 263 min read
Birds With Altitude Campout: October 2025
We attended the BWA campout held on the long weekend of 3 – 6 October 2025. This was based at the South Johnstone Forestry Camp on K-tree Road, in the Misty Mountains section of Wooroonooran National Park.
Lindsay Fisher
Dec 24, 20255 min read
To Perth for the 2025 Australasian Ornithological Conference!
The three-day Conference was held at the University of Western Australia’s School of Business Studies, and over 450 delegates attended from Australia, New Zealand, and beyond.
Lindsay Fisher
Dec 12, 20254 min read
Conservation Matters
Our Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is doomed and there is nothing we can now do to save it. This conclusion has been on the board for a long time, and leading coral reef biologists such as Charlie Veron have been pointing this out for more than a decade, particularly following the impacts of increasing acidity in GBR waters.
Peter Valentine
Dec 3, 20257 min read
How the East Trinity wetlands were saved
Birding now plays a crucial role in East Trinity's ongoing protection with Denis reporting on bird numbers and sightings to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to emphasise the recovery that has taken place.
Denis Walls
Nov 27, 20254 min read
The Birds With Altitude Project: Citizen science monitoring in the Wet Tropics
In June 2022, BirdLife Northern Queensland, with the support of BirdLife Australia, secured a $10,747 Queensland Government Sustainability Action Grant to initiate bird monitoring activities in Wooroonooran National Park, which spans 114,900 hectares of pristine rainforest.
Ceri Pearce
Oct 30, 20255 min read
Conservation Matters
Concerns for Australia’s migratory Swifts: For many years the observations of citizen scientists and birders have been compiled by Michael Tarburton, who would generously produce annual reports on each species, and occasionally write updates and other information summaries. This year Michael announced that he is no longer going to compile the data as the evidence he was seeking is now clear: both species are in serious decline.
Peter Valentine
Oct 1, 20257 min read
Old friends and new places - Our Grasswrens in May 2025
In late October–November 2023, extensive wildfires swept through the core areas for Carpentarian Grasswrens, north-west of Mount Isa in outback Queensland. BirdLife Northern Queensland has been monitoring both Carpentarian and Kalkadoon Grasswrens in that area for several years now, so we have a good baseline of just where we can find groups of both species.
Kath Shurcliff
Sep 1, 20254 min read
Where are our Cranes?
The Crane Count is one of the longest running citizen science projects in Australia, now entering its 27th year. The Atherton Tablelands has hosted both species of Australia’s cranes with records dating back to around the 1920’s for Brolga and 1967 for Sarus.
Ed Bell
Aug 5, 20254 min read
Strengthening connections with Indigenous Rangers
BirdLife Australia’s Wetland Birds Monitoring Coordinator, Simon Kennedy, and BirdLife Northern Queensland Convenor, Denis Walls, attended the recent Indigenous Ranger Event at the Cairns Convention Centre: a gathering of Senior Rangers and Coordinators from across northern Australia, including Torres Strait.
BirdLife Northern Queensland
Jun 17, 20252 min read
2025 Wave the Waders Goodbye event at the Cairns Esplanade Foreshore
Hidetoshi Kudo (Mikey) | Cairns Area Coordinator Wave the Waders Goodbye is one of our longest-running annual north Queensland events...
Hidetoshi (Mikey) Kudo
May 28, 20252 min read
Five Years of Nordmann’s Greenshank: during Far North Queensland’s Wet Seasons from 2020–2021 to 2024–2025
Cairns has been quite fortunate in the last five years in having the opportunity to observe a rare migratory bird species, the Nordmann’s Greenshank. Since this individual is always single when observed at Cairns Esplanade foreshore (mudflat), we have the opportunity to monitor how the individual moults in each season.
Mikey (Hidetoshi) Kudo
May 19, 20253 min read
Birds with Altitude 2024 Challenge Competition winner
We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2024 Birds with Altitude Challenge Competition is: 🏆 Margaret Muoio 🏆 As the competition winner, Margaret will enjoy a two-hour cruise on the Daintree River with the renowned Daintree River Boatman, Murray Hunt.
Ceri Pearce
May 9, 20252 min read
Conservation Matters
It was announced that another $250 million would be allocated to our Protected Areas to help reach the longer term target of 30% of our land and sea under protection by 2030. This is a laudable and essential step in trying to ensure most of our biodiversity might survive.
Peter Valentine
Apr 17, 20257 min read
Grasswren survival?
Call for volunteers to survey grasswrens in western Queensland – April/May 2025
Kath Shurcliff
Feb 28, 20252 min read
Convenor's report: February 2025
Many of you know me from other roles I have had in Far North Queensland, perhaps more as an environmentalist than a birdwatcher. For your interest, I grew up in a birding family and my father was well-known in the Scottish birding community. We had a huge aviary in our back garden although, nowadays, they tend to be frowned upon. My father, brother and I also had big bird egg collections before those, understandably, became infra dig.
Denis Walls
Feb 26, 20254 min read
Contact Call archive
Contact Call has been our quarterly newsletter full of great articles about birds, birding, conservation, and opportunities to get involved since 1994. Even though Contact Call is 'going digital', you can still access a full archive of past editions here:
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