At the northern tip of Australia’s Top End lies Cobourg Peninsula, a truly magnificent tropical paradise with exceptionally high biodiversity value. Cobourg contains diverse and expansive wetlands supporting an abundance of marine, freshwater and terrestrial species. These features contributed to its recognition in 1974 as an internationally significant site for wetlands, the first in the world to be listed under the RAMSAR convention. Parks staff have limited capacity to monitor these communities on top of their busy workload running Garig Gunak Barlu National Park. Low cost and effective methods to monitor wildlife within the National Park/Marine Park are required to check on the status of significant species, and to track patterns of change. 
  
This project will implement a novel method to ‘spy' on seabirds on a remote island breeding colony. Cameras present a cheap alternative to direct observation by field biologists, as they can collect information for long periods and require little to no maintenance. Video and still cameras have been used to study penguins, albatross and cliff-nesting seabirds in other parts of the world. However, only recently has time-lapse technology become a viable option for wildlife studies due to the release of a relatively cheap commercial product with custom made waterproof housing. 
 
We plan to install time-lapse cameras on Sandy Island no. 2., a mixed-species tern colony within Garig Gunak Barlu National/Marine Park. Cameras will be installed prior to egg-laying and collected once chicks have left the colony. Images will be taken every few minutes over several weeks to track the progress of 100 individual nests, providing data on laying success, hatching success, nest attendance, predation events, and the effects of storms. Each camera will be oriented towards 20 - 50 nests of Crested Tern Thalasseus bergii, Bridled Tern Sterna anaethetus, Black-naped Tern Sterna sumatrana (if present), and Roseate Tern Sterna dougallii (if present). 
  
This project will demonstrate how advances in technology can be used to deliver improved monitoring of seabirds. Once proven, this method will be of interest to land managers and ranger groups more broadly for application to other ground-nesting seabirds and waterbirds, as well as other wildlife. A major focus will be training the ranger group in the use of the cameras and methods to process image and analyse data to facilitate the continued use of the purchased cameras for vital long-term monitoring.

Funding will enable the purchase of 15 commercially available time-lapse cameras and waterproof housings (Brand 'Brinno'), as well as SD cards, long-life batteries, and steel posts. Involvement of personnel is volunteer or in-kind involvement from Parks and Wildlife staff, and all food and camping costs will be covered by participants.
Time-lapse camera (Brinno 200) and housing X 15 -  $4200
Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries x 120 - $280
SD Card x 15 - $300
Steel Posts x 15 - $120
Pozible costs (5%) - $300
TOTAL $5200

Battery life and robustness of waterproof housing, as well as the stability and safety of mounting locations will influence successful operation of cameras. From the pool of 15 cameras we hope to record nesting activities from at least 100 nests of two species.

The successful development and trial of a monitoring method for colonial seabirds birds will be measured by the preparation and release of a document at the end of the project outlining the application of cameras for monitoring seabirds. Incorperating lessons learned, it is intended this project will be adopted as a long-term monitoring program, and continued at the study site by the Black Point ranger group.

Timing of tern breeding may shift from the norm in any given year due to environmental variation. Rangers at Black Point are keeping a close eye to determine the start of egg laying after which we will visit and install cameras.