Birdlife Australia held an informative Hooded Plover Monitor training day at Point Roadknight last week helping volunteers to utilise a new online data portal.
The portal is an efficient way of collecting data and will assist regional groups and volunteers to monitor Hooded Plover pairs.
Hooded Plovers breed during the busiest time of year on our coast, between September and March each year and are classed as a threatened species. ‘Hoodies’ nest on our beaches, making them very vulnerable to a range of predators and other threats, including accidental trampling by humans.
GORCC Conservation Officer Georgina Beale who attended the event, said the training day assisted participants to learn how to use the new online portal and understand its benefits.
“The portal is environmentally friendly in its ability to reduce paper trail as volunteers can record their hours and notes online,” she said.
Photo courtesy of Glenn Ehmke.
Birdlife Australia Word about the Hood May 2012 newsletter reported that the online data portal also has the capacity to:
- Shortlist pairs that need checking (i.e. have not been checked for over a fortnight);
- See which pairs currently have eggs and chicks (and so better estimating important dates to visit);
- Set alerts for new nests or chick sites that need urgent management put in place and;
- See the current state of play for all the birds at once.
For further information on the online data portal and becoming a volunteer visit the Birdlife Australia website.
More information on Hooded Plovers can be found here.
Related blog posts:
 An update on our little ‘Hoodies’
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 Precious babies on our beaches |
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Great Ocean Road Coast Committee Blog 