Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2015
±Ê°ù´ÇÂá±ð³¦³Ù:ÌýEastern Australian Waterbird Survey
Observer:Â Terry Korn
A strong tailwind shunted us up the Sunshine coast today and we headed north to tackle surveys on the coastal wetlands of bands seven, eight, nine and ten, all the way north to Shute Harbour, near the Whitsunday Islands. The word tackled has prompted me to mention that the day took us ever closer to the home country of the North Queensland Cowboys, justifiably the deserved winners of the best ever NRL grand final played in living memory. You can sense the euphoria and pride build as you move north from the defeated, dejected, despondent and despairing Brisbane camp.
Our low level flight path tracked over Rainbow beach, the site of the recent sink-hole incident in the caravan park on Fraser Island where some vehicles and caravans found themselves in an unexpected and very wet situation. It was an impressive site from 80m height. Immediately north of this is the channel between Fraser Island and the coast. Here, along with Morton Bay is where you see many sea turtles and dugong, but especially the former. Each year is the same.
Today was not a top day for waterbirds. There are never many birds on bands seven and eight but often the floodplain wetlands in bands nine and ten yield good numbers. There has been so little rain this year that only a few of the designated wetlands had sufficient water to attract significant numbers. But there were two exceptions. In band nine, north of Rockhampton, Pacific Black ducks, which normally do not form large groups, break the pattern consistently on this floodplain by congregating in large numbers. It is one of the few places I see large congregations of black duck in eastern Australia. Today I counted just under 1000 on just one of these wetlands. In band ten, just south of Proserpine, black swans dominated where I counted just under 500 on one wetland. I saw no Burdekin ducks (also called radjah shelduck) on the Proserpine floodplains, usually a common haunt of this species. But I did see three land in the Airlie Beach swimming complex late in the evening when walking. I guess they think any water will do when it is dry and free of the backpackers who cover this place like a colourful moss!Â