We take you on a walk in the west with a volunteer’s perspective. Jenny and Mike are here for the summer studying the changes to the island after the pest eradication. This weeks Macca Gallery brings you images of the amazing scenery and wildlife from both the west and east of the island.

A walk in the west – a volunteer’s perspective

Last week Clive and I volunteered to help out the albatross girls, Jaimie and Kate, and ranger Kris with the banding of northern giant petrel chicks. Mike, one of the MIPEP crew also came to lend a hand.

Clive and I were very fortunate to once again venture onto the Western featherbed Special Management Area (SMA). Access to this Special Management Area is restricted to researchers only from August 1st to May 31st as it helps to let seabirds breed undisturbed. Special approval is required from the Rangers to access these areas during the closed season. Volunteering to assist in some of the projects and programmes is a good way of getting to see different parts of the island away from the normal walking tracks.

As volunteers our job was to assist Jaimie, Kate and Kris as scribes to record data while they carried out banding of the chicks.

The northern giant petrels start breeding from early August and start laying eggs from mid-August to early September. The incubation is done by both sexes in shifts of 5 to 10 days. Incubation lasts for around 60 days, so chicks start to hatch mid-October to early November.

Both parents take turns (around 3 days) brooding over the chicks for around 17 to 19 days. The chicks fledge about 110 to 120 days after hatching, leaving the nest in February.

The job at hand was to check all nests, which had been identified during August and September. If a chick were on the nest a numbered metal identification band would be attached to one of its legs.

Bird banding is considered to be a very important aspect of the programme as it enables researchers to gather basic data on bird movements and habits. A data base search of one band recovered from a dead bird carcass earlier this year, revealed that the bird was approx 34years old. The bird body was located approx. 200m from where it was first banded! These birds are known to fly all around the southern subantartic.

We split into pairs — one person to attach the band the other to record the status of the nest (chick, empty or failed), the band number and state of plumage (5 states).

It was a picture perfect day when we left VJM just after 9am and made our way down the west coast and up on the featherbed to Elizabeth and Mary Point. Here we split into the pairs and systematically located the nests amongst the tussock — from GPS waypoints.

We stopped for lunch near the shore of Unity Bay. We had to re-apply sunscreen as it was a calm, warm and sunny day. After lunch we continued banding, ever slowly moving south. At around 4 pm it was deemed that we had done enough for the day. We then climbed the steep, arduous, steady jump-up the escarpment.

The weather was still perfect and at the top we had great views up and down the west coast, while the view to east was across the plateau and down to Island Lake.

It is here that the group split. Jaimie, Kate and Kris made there way back to VJM via the Island Lake track, while Mike escorted Clive and I across the plateau. Skirting the magical Island Lake and viewing it from high up on the ridge, gave added perspective of the incredible landscape we were walking through. Another highlight of the day. We eventually made our way to the Overland track. From there we made our way to Brothers Point hut, arriving at around 8:30pm.

In the hut we were treated to a tasty meal prepared by Leona. Though quite weary we reflected on the amazing day we had out in the field.

Team Veg and erosion

Jenny Scott (University of Tasmania) and Mike Comfort (DPIPWE) are here for the summer studying vegetation and landscape change and the island’s geological and geomorphological values. Jenny has been conducting a long-term monitoring program documenting vegetation and landscape changes since 1980, just after myxomatosis was put into the rabbit population.

Now there are no rabbits, rats or mice, thanks to the diligent efforts of the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Programme (MIPEP) team… over the past year or so, everyone familiar with the island has been astounded and thrilled by the rapid rate of vegetation regrowth. It’s not there yet, but well on its way! Mike is here to document sites of geological and geomorphological interest and compile a Geoconservation Strategy for the island, which as we all know is an important World Heritage site listed largely for its geological values. He is also taking over Jenny’s long-term erosion monitoring sites and re-vitalising them for the future. 

It is interesting to see that despite dramatic changes in the vegetation, including regrowth of the big tussock grasses, Macquarie Island cabbage and the beautiful silvery megaherb Pleurophyllum, and changes in abundance of a whole host of smaller plant species, there is still very active land-slipping and sheet/gully erosion on many of the steep slopes which were severely degraded by rabbits over the past decade. Hopefully things will stabilise over time as the island adjusts to the disappearance of the rabbits and breathes a huge sigh of relief.

Time will tell, and it is a very exciting period to be studying changes here — unprecedented, really — who knows how the balance will change between plants, birds, insects, fungi, and the land itself, after such a rapid cessation to long-term use and abuse by the ferals?

The eradication program has been a world first, in size and complexity. We can only hope that the extraordinary changes which we are starting to witness are able to be studied and documented into the future, to do this justice — starting as soon as possible!

We have  found it truly amazing to travel around the island without seeing any sign of rabbits whatsoever. For many years we have been accustomed to seeing nearly every bare area scruffed about by rabbit diggings, with rabbit footprints everywhere and with rabbits always in sight. Now one only sees human and dog footprints, and on nearly every bare area; a testament to the dedication and thoroughness of the MIPEP team.  They have all our admiration for their mental and physical stamina — they are out in all weathers traversing extremely challenging terrain, for weeks on end — in the continuing hope of not finding anything.

Jenny Scott and Mike Comfort

Macca Gallery

This weeks Macca Gallery has images from a field trip that involved Clive and Barry helping out with the northern giant petrel banding program on the west coast, then a couple of images from the walk along the east coast.

on