The bioblitz was held over Friday and Saturday, with Mimosa Rocks Bioblitz organiser Libby Hepburn saying it had come together and went “really well”.

“There’s a nice buzz amongst the place, there’s a lot of people here, a lot of people enjoying themselves,” she said on Friday.

It had turned out to be very popular with many surveys booked out before the bioblitz even began.

Ms Hepburn said the bioblitz was operated by volunteers and supported by the Atlas of Living Australia, which all records from the two days would go to the database of.

“It isn’t a cost thing, it is just people enjoying themselves,” she said.

This was the third bioblitz run in the Bega Valley, the first being a 2012 Bermagui one followed by Panboola Wetlands earlier this year and Ms Hepburn was unsure of where the next one would be, but possibly at Bournda.  

The aim of these events was to encourage nature tourism, and Ms Hepburn said she would like to make bioblitzes a “flagship event” like the Eden Whale Festival, to show off the beautiful area of the Bega Valley.

John La Salle of the Atlas of Living Australia said the data gathered on the day would go towards building the Atlas’ knowledge base, contributing records and images of plants and animals which the Atlas might not otherwise know about.

He said there were 50 million records in the Atlas, 50,000 of which came from citizen science activities such as the bioblitz.

“I think these are hugely important activities as it gets people involved - the average person gets to understand science,” Mr La Salle said.

“We want to engage people and help them understand.” 

THERE was an extensive range of activities to participate in at the Mimosa Rocks Bioblitz, if koalas weren’t your thing you could look for moths or frogs.

The activities looked for different plants and animals which were part of the Mimosa Rocks ecosystem, including spotlighting for night creatures, examining shells around a headland and spotting birds on a beach.

An aquatic life survey was held at dam just off the Tathra-Bermagui Rd led by Stephen Skinner of the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens, with a group turning up to see what kind of life lived in freshwater dams in the area.

“The water is good,” Mr Skinner said.

“It’s got a nice ph, its got a very low salt content and its got great clarity.”

Critters were collected with nets then placed into white plastic trays for identification, and included mayfly nymphs and caddisfly lava, which are sensitive to most pollutants, as well as shrimp, water snails and dragonfly nymphs.

During the survey, Mr Skinner was collecting flora samples for the botanic gardens, to keep their information up-to-date.

“The botanic gardens doesn’t have as good a collection of southern coastal area samples as it does for the northern, which is a shame,” he said.

There were multiple reptile surveys led by up-and-coming 18-year-old herpetologist Harrison Warne, which included setting traps to catch lizards and snakes as well as conducting hand surveys.

Assistant leader and reptile expert Ross Bennett said evolutionarily reptiles were very good at hiding, making this survey a difficult one.

“The challenge with this survey is that we are looking for animals that don’t want to be found,” he said.

Mr Warne said on Friday morning they had found a small-eyed snake as well as small skinks, but other species which could be found included lace monitors and one of the seven species of snake which lived in the area.

While during this reporter’s participation in the survey the only scaly creatures seen were skinks, but three elusive glossy black cockatoos were spotted eating in a tree – good news as there was also a survey dedicated to finding the birds.

THE koala surveys at the Mimosa Rocks Bioblitz proved to be popular, involving searching for evidence of a koala population in the bush along Gillards Rd.

Survey leader Chris Allen said there was very clear evidence of recovering koala numbers 10kms north-west of Gillards on the other side of the Tathra-Bermagui Rd, and while it was a small population it was enormously significant as there are only three known koala populations between Sydney and the Victorian border.

The work done during the bioblitz was part of the last major phase of surveys taking place since 2012 looking for evidence of koalas in the Bega Valley, and at Gillards Rd Mr Allen was looking to see if koalas were expanding into the area.

Survey leader Mark Lems explained searching for koala remnants was done with a random grid spot survey assessment, finding a tree 150mm in diameter then searching for koala pellets underneath it.

While many participants had high hopes of seeing a live koala in the trees, that was a very rare event according to team leader Roger Park, who has been surveying for koalas in the area for around five years and the only time he has seem the animals in the wild was on his second day of the job.

“It’s quite rare and quite exciting when it happens,” he said.

While koalas are making a comeback in the Bega Valley, with a decent population south of the Murrah River, Mr Park said they are still struggling.

“The population has increased over the last four and a half years, but its got a long way to go though,” he said.