To our new lorikeet spotters - welcome from Lauren, Maya and myself.

To the folks who added the several new observations this week - thank you

Don't forget on Thursday, I will be giving a webinar about Lorikeet Paralysis Syndrome, the study and what we have found so far. It is free.

To register to attend, go to this link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Bu20Y0SkT6inQFD0fAcSSg. The seminar begins 5:30 in Queensland and 6:30 in New South Wales.

Have a great week.

David

Dear Contributors,

Again, thank you to everyone who has made one or more observations, they are making a difference.

This week I gave a webinar on Thursday night about this project. We had 101 logins to the webinar which was wonderful and have had some new people join our project since then - Welcome.

In preparing for the webinar I went over the data that has been generated to date.

Between your observations and observations of others in iNaturalist through the past few years we have more than 500 observations of feeding lorikeets or plants on which lorikeets have fed. We have identified 61 species of plants that on which they feed. Twenty of these have some level of toxicity and 10 species potentially produce a toxin that might cause LPS like signs. Of these ten species, four bloom or fruit only during that time or the year when LPS occurs. So the project is working, we are beginning to identify some plants that might be the cause of LPS.

However, we are not there yet and your observations between now and the end of February will be critical to this project, so keep up the good work.

All the best,

David, Lauren and Maya.

Dear Contributors,

It is an exciting week. We have 11 new members that have signed up since our webinar 9 days ago.

For you that were unable to attend the webinar, but would still be interested in seeing it, a recording of it can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=dOPYfz7aHI8.

We are having a beautiful spring day in the Camden area with lots of flowering bushes. Right now the lorikeets are predominately feeding on eucalypts with our resident red wattle bird defending our bottle brushes and grevillias.

All the best,

David, Maya and Lauren

Dear Observers,

First, it is great to see that we have new members on board and that our observation total continues to increase. Lets see if we can't try of 100 members and 100 observations in the weeks to come.

On a not so good note, Dr. Claude Lacasse who works for the RSPCA in Brisbane and who brought this syndrome to my attention in the first place, has seen her first case of LPS in lorikeets this year.

This means we are at a critical stage of the study and it is critical that between now and Christmas we identify as many plant species as possible on which lorikeets are feeding.

Have a great week.

David

Dear Lorikeet spotters,

First welcome to our new spotters of the week: #paperbark_native_bees, #regen, and #lavish_optimism. We look forward to you contribution to the project.

Second, this week I gave a very abbreviate talk in a podcast from Sydney ideas. I was only one of several presenters and the other presentations on powerful owls, ibis (aka bin chickens), brush turkeys, and cockatoos learning to open trash cans were outstanding. I encourage you all to take 30 minutes and listen to this podcast about urban birds. The link is here: https://soundcloud.com/sydney-ideas/for-the-birds.

Last week, I was asked where lorikeet paralysis was most likely to occur: We have some hotspot maps that show where many of the cases have come from, but I cannot load it up here. I will load it onto our University of Sydney Website https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/our-research/research-areas/veterinary-science/lorikeet-paralysis-syndrome-project.html this week.

While you are waiting for the map, a few areas that we see LPS most commonly, include areas around Noosa, the area around the University of Brisbane Campus, Noosa, and the stretch of suburbs south of the M2 from Forest Lake to Loganholme with cases extending south down either side of the M1.

Thank you all again for your observations and contributions.

Have a great week:

David, Maya, and Lauren