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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · 1d

I’m sad to see the bittern gone…

Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · 12d

NUMBER 3 WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE (Tasmanian *obviously* 😆)

Australian bird of the year! A tiny feathery hiatus from the grim day-to-day | First Dog on the Moon

(unless you are a bird)

www.theguardian.com

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 14

IKR - imagine!! You're thinking of CETI's work?
www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

What are animals saying? AI may help decode their languages

A groundbreaking research project is finally building the tools to translate just how whales and other creatures communicate.

www.nationalgeographic.com

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 13

Dive into the sounds of Tasmania's wetlands from dusk till dawn...🧵⬆️
#acoustics #citizenscience #Tasmania #conservation #science #conservationscience #wildlife #monitoring #nationalscienceweek #STEM #ornithology #bittern #threatenedspecies #biodiversity #nature #CallTrackers #NatureTrackers 🌏🧪🦇🪶🦉🌿🎙️

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 13

...hone the recognition software, so we can all better monitor for bitterns across Tasmania.
It's fun, there'll be great snacks, & you don't need to be an expert. Have a go for National Science Week!
Details & bookings: events.humanitix.com/bittern-ques...
#nationalscienceweek

Bittern quest: boom or bust? [afternoon]

Learn about the mysterious, Endangered Australasian bittern, & help track down its booming call among data collected across Tasmania by CallTrackers volunteers!

events.humanitix.com

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 13

In Hobart this Sunday? Your ears are very much needed for this special BITTERN QUEST!
Help check CallTrackers' haunting recordings from around Tasmania—tentatively identified as likely the 'boom' of an Endangered Australasian bittern—in order to...
#nationalscienceweek #citizenscience #bioacoustics

A small raft is being punted by someone dressed as a squire; on the raft is a life size model of a horse, entirely covered in red and white squared cloth, and ridden by an armoured knight. They on a calm river and floating past some promising looking bittern habitat (reeds)
Photo: Jim Whitehead

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 13

The Field Guide to the Insects of Tasmania now offers yet another fantastic tool…
#Tasmania #insects #nature #TakeACloserLook

Field Guide to the Insects of Tasmania @insectsoftasmania.bsky.social · Aug 13

"True Bugs by Colour" is now up and running after a year of preparation. We have around 250 named species of Hemiptera and they are now sorted into a rainbow of shades. We hope it helps you track down the name of one of your locals!
tasmanianinsectfieldguide.com/hexapoda/ins...

True Bugs by Colour

True bugs (Hemiptera) come in a huge diversity of body forms; from flat looking blobs to metallic beetle like insects. They all have sucking mouthparts. Click on the colours that are closest to the ...

tasmanianinsectfieldguide.com

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 13

Fantastic 👏👏👏👏

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 7

#NatureTrackers' big #news! 🧵
with @btobirds.bsky.social
#bioacoustics #acoustics #citizenscience #CallTrackers #Tasmania #conservation #science #conservationscience #wildlife #monitoring #nationalscienceweek #STEM #ornithology #birds #curlew #threatenedspecies #biodiversity #nature 🌏🧪🦇🪶🦉🌿🎙️

Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 7

This season, we can announce a new call recogniser in the software: for Critically Endangered FAR EASTERN CURLEWS, seen but rarely heard in #Tasmania.
It recognised calls from our 1st recordings near curlews, at dusk & dawn.
Where else will #CallTrackers detect them?
#news 🧪🌏🪶🌿🎙️
📷 Elaine McDonald

Far eastern curlew on low wetland vegetation in Tasmania, showing off its immensely long, slightly downward curved bill.

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 7

Please be part of it! Sign up! And for #NationalScienceWeek there are friendly intros to CallTrackers across Tasmania...
naturetrackers.au/news/spring-...

#CitizenScience #monitoring #conservation #Tasmania #NatureTrackers
🧪🌏🪶🌿🦇🎙️

📷 Helen Cunningham

Spring into wildlife monitoring action! | Latest news | NatureTrackers

National Science Week workshops across Tasmania, September schools visits and more…

naturetrackers.au

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 7

—by Cradle Coast Authority’s NRM + Devonport City Council, under the Aus Govt-funded Urban Rivers & Catchments Program.
As the habitat improves, will #CallTrackers start to record the haunting curlew call & the bittern's boom?
Now we can find out.
#acoustic #conservation 🧪🌏🪶🌿🦇🎙️
📷 Elaine McDonald

Flying far eastern curlew against a plain pale grey sky.

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 7

Far eastern curlews have declined rapidly, facing disturbance, pollution & habitat loss in China, Russia, SE Asia, Aus & NZ— & on their migration routes between these. It's our largest shorebird; & check that incredible bill!
Hence restoration efforts at the Mersey estuary—
#WildOz
📷 Jenny Ostenfeld

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 7

This season, we can announce a new call recogniser in the software: for Critically Endangered FAR EASTERN CURLEWS, seen but rarely heard in #Tasmania.
It recognised calls from our 1st recordings near curlews, at dusk & dawn.
Where else will #CallTrackers detect them?
#news 🧪🌏🪶🌿🎙️
📷 Elaine McDonald

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 7

These annual #volunteer -run surveys across Tasmania, using recorders borrowed from libraries, can help track changes in these species' distributions & numbers.
We can even head back in time, to pick out calls of species that the Acoustic Pipeline can now recognise, from stored recordings...
🧪🌏🪶🌿🦇🎙️

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 7

If you contribute to CallTrackers' annual surveys for #Tasmania 's 'noisy but elusive' species (like bats & the Endangered Australasian bittern)—you get to use @btobirds.bsky.social's Acoustic Pipeline software. Increasingly accurately, this can flag likely calls of these species...
#citsci 🧪🌏🪶🌿🦇🎙️

Small, green wildlife acoustic recorder set up at Moulting Lagoon, Tasmania, to record ultrasonic and audible sounds made by wildlife: recorder on stake in foreground; dunes, sand and sea in background

Australasian bittern, facing camera, well-hidden in green reeds with upward-pointing dull yellow bill, yellow eyes looking forward, beige and white feathered breast. Photo: Helen Cunningham

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 5

...and keep your eyes peeled for VERY exciting news coming soon, about the species we can learn about through CallTrackers acoustic monitoring...

#Tasmania #CallTrackers #NatureTrackers #bats #bitterns #citizenscience #stem #nationalscienceweek #acoustic #conservation 🌏 🧪🪶🦇🌿🎙️

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 5

Learn all about it for #NationalScienceWeek! Every Sept-March, you can help monitor wildlife across #Tasmania & learn more about your more elusive neighbours, by borrowing #CallTrackers’ state-of-the-art recorders from various libraries.
Find out more in a workshop: naturetrackers.au/news/spring-...

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 3

...check out this very cool online workshop which will enable you to explore your recordings further 😲 🦇
Find out more with Tas bat expert Dr Lisa Cawthen:
www.scienceweek.net.au/event/chirop...

#acoustics #bats #Tasmania #wildlife #monitoring #nature #calltrackers #nationalscienceweek

Chiropterology for Beginners: How to decode the secret world of bats - National Science Week

Step into the fascinating world of bats with this special Australian National Science Week session! Discover the basics of chiropterology (the study of bats) as you learn how to survey bats and decode...

www.scienceweek.net.au

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 3

Tasmanians! Getting into the massive #NationalScienceWeek buzz? Maybe you've already booked into a 'Discover CallTrackers' acoustic monitoring workshop, or 'Bittern Quest'? Details in #NatureTrackers' calendar—see August: naturetrackers.au/about/events...
But ALSO...

#CitSci #STEM #Tasmania 🧪🌏🌿🎙️🪶🦇

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Aug 1

It's a difficult concept & a *nightmare* choice (& I want more invertebrates) but still - let's give more fab species a big boost! Vote! Vote! Vote!

Meet the contestants for Australia's top underrated animal

Move over, roos and emus — this National Science Week, we're looking for the most underrated Australian animal. Meet the contestants, and vote for who you think should win.

www.abc.net.au

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Jul 20

ikr

Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Jul 20

…but maybe just leave it to the velvet worms? 😆

Picture of a Tasmanian velvet worms Ooperipatellus decorata, recorded from Balfour by Simon Grove on iNaturalist. It is very regularly patterned in diamonds & stripes of grey-blue, olive green and cream.

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Jul 13

Step 1: find out who’s living there *before* you bust up its habitat!
Eg 5 threatened burrowing crayfish burrow only in small areas of land in #Tasmania, often vulnerable to compaction & destruction eg by cattle & housebuilding
www.threatenedspecieslink.tas.gov.au/Pages/Result...

#extinctionmatters

Biodiversity Council @biodivcouncil.bsky.social · Jul 13

Invertebrates, like bees, worms and spiders, play many vital functions in our ecosystems. But almost 1,000 Aussie invertebrates are threatened with extinction. We asked Assoc Prof Kate Umbers from Biodiversity Council and Invertebrates Australia how to help 🐝

#insects #conservation #CitizenScience

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Jul 5

And in the face of extra challenges eg super-snap-trap-avoidant rats, there are some great tips here: www.landcaretas.org.au/rodenticides

Rodenticides Community Awareness Program

www.landcaretas.org.au

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Clare Hawkins @clawkins.bsky.social · Jul 5

What's particularly unnerving is that Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles aren't even known to eat rodents 😳

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