Bittern Summit Presentations Online
Following our successful Bittern Conservation Summit earlier this year, the presentations from the ten speakers are now available online. The…
New Children’s Book: Bernie and the Bunyip Bird
BERNIE AND THE BUNYIP BIRD is here! It’s a brilliant new children’s book by Ann-Maree and Jan Thompson. You’ve…
Incentive Program: 3000 hectares and counting …
Another two rice seasons have ticked by since the first year of formal bittern-friendly rice incentives. They are offered…
New Bittern Summit Dates: Jan 31 – Feb 3, 2023
Following the difficult decision to postpone the Bittern Summit earlier this year, we now have new dates and everyone…
New Paper: Producing rice while conserving the habitat of an endangered waterbird: Incentives for farmers to integrate water management
It feels so good to see this new paper published in Land Use Policy. It’s all about incentives for rice…
New Booklet: Saving The Endangered Australasian Bittern
Riverina Local Land Services and I are very happy to release this new bittern booklet. It’s all about the latest…
New Paper: From boutique to mainstream: Upscaling wildlife-friendly farming through consumer premiums
Would you buy bittern-friendly rice? We’re delighted to see this new paper published in Conservation Science and Practice this weekend.…
Bittern Summit Registrations OPEN
Registration opens today – sign up now The iconic Australasian Bittern is the focus of a summit in Leeton on…
New Paper: Increasing water-use efficiency in rice fields threatens an endangered waterbird
We’re delighted to share this new paper, albeit about a sustainability trade-off in rice farming, where saving water undermines successful…
Bittern Conservation Summit: Feb. 1-4, 2022
We’re very pleased to announce this special event, where birdwatchers, farmers, scientists, wetland managers and all those that share a…
New round of incentives for 2020-21
We’re all set for a big season of bittern-friendly rice growing. With much more favourable water allocations, many new growers…
Incentive Program Success + New Film
We have good news, fresh from the Riverina’s rice fields. Our first season of bittern-friendly rice growing incentives has been…
Launch: Bittern-friendly Rice Growing Incentive EOI
This is hugely exciting and great timing for #ThreatenedSpeciesDay. Riverina Local Land Services have just launched Expressions of Interest…
New Paper: Rice fields support the global stronghold for an endangered waterbird
In this new paper, published online yesterday in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, we formally estimate that Riverina rice fields support…
2018-19 Season Update
It’s been a tough season, reminiscent of the millennium drought. Hats off to all the Riverina farmers getting through it.…
Trans-Tasman Bittern Knowledge Exchange
What a wonderful trip. It was as if we spent a week compiling precious pieces of a rare, incomplete jigsaw…
MILo returns to Coomonderry Swamp
At the end of April, during harvest time, we were delighted to witness MILo’s dispersal to the coast once again.…
Thermal Drone Breakthrough
Last month, we trialed a thermal drone. We hoped it would show promise in helping us to monitor breeding success…
Channel 9 News Sydney Feature
Last night, hundreds of thousands of Australians were introduced to the strange waterbird that has captivated so many of us.…
Battle of the Bitterns
It’s been another busy summer for us. We conducted our sixth annual random farm surveys, and for the first time,…
Painted Snipe Return
Last week, we hit the jackpot, the ‘night parrot’ of wetlands. There was at least three Australian Painted Snipe at…
MILo returns to Riverina after five months on coast
MILo has just crossed the Great Dividing Range and is back safe and sound in the Riverina, ready for the…
Coleambally’s Cumbungi Channels to Coastal Coomonderry Swamp
Demo’s Cumbungi-lined channel of choice for the 2017 winter. Photo: Mark Robb We have six key messages from winter in…
Arnold’s on the move
Witnessing these insights unfold is a joy. Three weeks ago, Arnold departed the rice field where we found him in…
MILo disperses 500 km to Shoalhaven Heads
Pause for a moment; salute MILo who has just touched down near Shoalhaven Heads. His 536 km dispersal took him…
Introducing Arnold, plus other news
This week we were pleased to add our tenth bittern to the tracking programme. He was another young male from…
Go Milly! Siberia awaits. Please Help.
Milly Formby’s crowdfunding campaign has just launched and we’re hoping you can support her amazing quest. She plans to fly a…
Baby Bitterns, Prospectus and Night-herons
The season’s first baby bitterns are thriving. They keep their Mums very busy delivering tadpoles, carp and other tasty morsels.…
Introducing MILo and Demo
It seems hard to believe but we’re now up to nine bitterns for our crowd-funded satellite tracking program. It has been a…
Introducing Bidgee and Cumberland
We’re delighted to introduce Bidgee and Cumberland, adult males caught and released in the Benerembah area north of Griffith last…
Random farm monitoring, first nest, six trackers and more!
Happy New Year to all of you and many thanks for your great support in 2016. It’s already shaping up…
Robbie the bittern and his 323-day journey
Read “Robbie’s gone a roaming“, the Spring 2016 Australian Birdlife article detailing the full 323-day journey of the first ever…
Mt Burr Swamp Restoration Underway
Hats off to Nature Glenelg Trust who raised over $90 000 to complete the purchase of Mount Burr Swamp and begin…
40th Annual Waterbird Society Conference Round-up
Not long before Hurricane Matthew came along, 250 waterbird aficionados gathered in New Bern, North Carolina, for the 40th Annual…
Milly Formby set to fly a microlight to Siberia for migratory shorebirds
Milly Formby is an amazing woman. Already an artist and zoologist, she’s now in training to fly a microlight from…
“Cranes, Herons and Storks of Australia”, by David Hollands
David Hollands made several trips to the Riverina’s rice fields so he could incorporate the bitterns in rice phenomenon. This…
Summary Booklet: The Story So Far, 2012-2016
We’re pleased to make available our freshly updated and expanded Bitterns in Rice Project summary booklet, The Story So Far:…
Abstract: 40th Annual Waterbird Society Conference
We’re delighted to be taking our project to North Carolina in September for the 40th Annual Waterbird Society Conference (https://waterbirds.org). Here’s…
Mount Burr Swamp Purchase & Restoration
Please consider backing this fantastic project launched by Nature Glenelg Trust last week. You can make a direct contribution to the purchase…
Booklet Launch, Coleambally, August 3rd, 10.30 am
A fully updated and expanded booklet, including the second edition of our bittern friendly rice growing tips, will be launched…
Tootgarook Bittern is Coly-Lion
The mystery bittern at Tootgarook Swamp has been revealed. It’s Coly-Lion! It was a little disappointing not to relocate the legendary…
Neil flies 450 km to Moodie Swamp; Robbie at Tootgarook?!
As if Neil’s spectacular 450 km dispersal wasn’t enough, photos taken just yesterday have us wondering which of our other bitterns is…
Robbie passes baton to Neil and COG
We’re sad to say that we’ve lost contact with Robbie. He’s been such a champion and has become an icon…
Threatened Species Commissioner Meets Bittern Chicks
It’s been a brilliant day. We’ve just had the pleasure of hosting the Threatened Species Commissioner, Gregory Andrews, as part of his tour…
Introducing No. 3: Coly-Lion + first nest
We’re thrilled after another successful morning in the rice around Coleambally. We caught and released ‘Coly-Lion’, our second booming male Australasian Bittern in…
Introducing Vin, our No. 2 Bittern
It finally happened this morning. We are delighted to introduce you to Vin, another Coleambally local, caught and released in a rice…
First nest imminent, Robbie returns to SA, prey study & more
It’s all happening. The rice season is in full swing now. We’ve had bittern sightings across the Finley, Deniliquin, Wakool, Coleambally, Darlington Point,…
Robbie back in Vic. as rice season begins
It’s time to check in with our intrepid traveller, the legendary Robbie. He’s full of surprises. You’ll recall that in…
Conference Round-up and Californian Inspiration
We’re back on home soil after a wonderful trip. The Global Food Security Conference at Cornell University in New York…