OBJECTIVES: To gather information on the movements, demography and morphology of the birds of the Washpool and Gibraltar Range National Parks.  One important aspect of this project is the strategic location of the site, which is a likely migration path between the Tablelands and the coast.  The threatened Rufous Scrub-bird occurs at a number of sites in the area and although attempts have been made to net this species they have been unsuccessful to date.  A total of 622 birds of 43 species have been banded with 67 birds being retrapped.  Eleven birds have had their band numbers read through a telescope.  No long distance recoveries have so far been recorded, although a Pied Currawong was recovered (number read through telescope) in July 2000, over eleven years since banding.

METHODS: Banding is carried out at 4 sites in the Washpool National Park and 3 sites in the Gibraltar Range National Park.
These sites sample Warm Temperate Rainforest, Wet Open Forest, Dry Open Forest and picnic areas.  With one exception (a Pied Currawong caught in a cage trap) all birds were caught in mist nets. No colour marking has been carried out in this project and data analysis has been limited to obtaining figures for this report.

DISCUSSION: The aims of the project are being achieved i.e. to gather information on the movements, demography and morphology of the local birds, although more frequent visits would allow more data to be obtained.  A number of birds not sampled by my other projects are banded at these locations, such as the Logrunner, Red-browed Treecreeper, and Pale-yellow Robin. Attempts will continue to catch and band Rufous Scrub-birds.
D. Davidson, S.G. Lane, A. Ley, G.E. Richards, D. Page, J. Patterson, D. Secomb, P. Thomson and J. Willows have also banded birds for this project.

PUBLICATIONS: There have been no publications resulting from this project to date.  A few recoveries from this project have recently appeared in Recovery Round-Up in Corella.