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Date: Wednesday October 23rd 2024

Project:ÌýEastern Australian Waterbird Survey

°¿²ú²õ±ð°ù±¹±ð°ù²õ: John Porter (NSW DPE), Shannon Dundas (DPI)

°Õ°ù²¹¾±²Ô±ð±ð: Kurt Murphy (Vic GMA)

±Ê¾±±ô´Ç³Ù: Thomas Clark

Our morning's counting objective was heading east along the highly modified Murrumbidgee flood plain towards Griffith. We counted a series of small to medium size irrigation storage dams and flooded paddocks. Usually these are low quality habitat but some of the flooded paddocks supported moderate numbers of waterbirds – mostly Grey Teal, Pacific Black and Pink-eared Ducks with some terns, egrets and herons in the mix.

Irrigation storage dam east of Hay

ÌýIrrigation storage dam east of Hay

Flooded paddock east of Hay

East of Griffith we set our sights on two Ramsar wetlands – Tuckerbill and Fivebough Swamps; Fivebough often supports large numbers of waterbirds. We were surprised to find Tuckerbill inundated with water and supporting thousands of waterbirds – mainly Grey Teal and Pink-eared Ducks. Fivebough also had thousands of waterbirds and a wide range of species – Magpie Geese, Purple Swamphen, Glossy Ibis, Australasian Shoveler, Ahiskered Terns, grebes, egrets and herons as well as plenty of the more commonly encountered duck species - Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Pink-eared Duck, Wood Duck, Mountain Duck and Hardhead.

Tuckerbill Swamp Ramsar site

Tuckerbill Swamp Ramsar site

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Counting on Fivebough Swamp Ramsar wetland

Counting on Fivebough Swamp Ramsar wetland

Fivebough Swamp Ramsar site

Fivebough Swamp Ramsar site

East of Leeton we began counting small reservoirs, dams and creeks as the countryside become hillier, and we found only low numbers of birds. Our final counting was around Bowral and Moss Vale with small farm dams and a few larger reservoirs that have only small areas of shallow water – as expected we encountered only a small number of waterbirds before completing the survey Band 3 and heading back to Bankstown airport to end the weeks survey program.