Nightstalk 2011 - time to get your team together and scout a location

Grab your spottie!

Nightstalk 2011 is rapidly approaching. If you haven't heard about Nightstalk then you really need to head to the website and find out all about this exciting initiative. In summary, it is a chance for interested people around the country to survey the nocturnal wildlife in their area and submit this to a national database.

It is run by the Perth Zoo, but participation is encouraged right across the continent to get as complete a picture as possible of all the nocturnal wildlife around the country. Alice Springs has been well-represented in the past with surveys conducted in a few sites across town and out through the Western Macs and Hermannsburg. Anyone is welcome to run their own spotting team and the sooner you get organised the better.

The Nightstalk starts on the first of September and runs through until the 16th of October. Teams should do at least one survey during this period and, ideally, perhaps a few surveys spread throughout the period. Instructions for how to go about your surveys and submit you results are all on the Nightstalk website. Now is the time to be organising your team, and finding a good site to survey which has legal access and that you know well enough to navigate around after dark.

The LfW coordinators will be forming a team and we'd love to hear about the efforts of other LfW and GfW members doing the same. Once the data goes up on the web it will be very interesting to see a snapshot of our nocturnal wildlife during such a good season in The Centre.