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Date: Tuesday October 29th 2024

Project:ÌýEastern Australian Waterbird Survey

°¿²ú²õ±ð°ù±¹±ð°ù²õ: John Porter (NSW DPE), Jody O'Connor (MDBA)

±Ê¾±±ô´Ç³Ù: Thomas Clark

Another day of warm temperatures and clear skies greeted us at Moree airport as we prepared the aircraft and headed west as we counted along Carole Creek, which was the last part of our monitoring work on the Gwydir. There was minimal water in the creek floodplain and low numbers of waterbirds – Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck and herons were the most abundant.

Counting along Carole Creek on the Gwydir wetlands

Carole Creek on the Gwydir wetlands

Next on our to-do list was Narran Lakes, internationally significant wetlands for waterbirds and also part of a Nature Reserve. Water levels had dropped significantly over recent months and Clear Lake was very shallow. The shallow water supported large numbers of waterbirds – large numbers of Grey Teal and good numbers of Pink-eared Duck, Pacific Black Duck, Wood Duck as well as Whiskered Terns, Pied Stilts, ibis, spoonbills, terns, Silver Gulls and Pelicans.

Looking towards Clear Lake in Narran Lakes Nature Reserve

Narran Lake Ìý

Clear Lake, Narran Lakes Nature Reserve

Near Back Lake, Narran Lakes Nature Reserve

The flooded lignum areas of Back Lake supported thousands of Black-tailed Native Hens as well as hundreds of Pacific Black Ducks, Grey Teal, spoonbills, egrets, ibis and herons. A little to the south was the much bigger expanse of Narran Lake which was now very shallow and drying back. Vast areas of shallow water meant good times for the ducks. There were thousands of Grey Teal, Pink-eared Duck, Pacific Black Duck,Wood Duck and good numbers of Australiasian Shoveler, stilts, lapwings, terns, herons, ibis, egrets and Brolgas.

From Narran Lake we turned to the south for the Macquarie Marshes, which is another internationally significant wetland and partly within a Nature Reserve. The Marshes contain the largest area of reedbeds in southeastern Australia, and one of the largest red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) woodlands. Major dams in the catchment and extraction of water for irrigation have seriously impacted the health of these wetlands over recent decades. ÌýToday we began our usual series of back and forth transects to sample the full extent of the huge expanse of wetlands within the Marshes. There was less water than the previous two years and we found moderate numbers of waterbirds – mainly Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Wood Duck, herons, Pelicans, ibis, egrets, spoonbills, Black Swans and a few Mountain Duck. We found very little breeding going on – just a few Australian White Ibis nests and broods of Black Swans.

Macquarie Marshes

Macquarie Marshes

After finishing our counts on the Marshes we flew to Bourke to refuel then it was northward to Yantabulla wetlands and Currawinya Lakes National Park, another Ramsar site. Parts of the Yantabulla wetland system have been protected by the recently declared Brindingabba National Park, but today the wetland was mostly dry with a few small areas of water and low numbers of waterbirds. Currawinya Lakes were also mostly dry. Only a small area of water remained in the usually large freshwater Lake Numalla. We were not anticipating what we found! The drying lake was teeming with waterbirds – tens of thousands of Grey Teal and thousands of Pink-eared Duck, Pacific Black Duck, Red-necked Avocet, terns and large numbers of lapwings, stilts, Silver Gulls and migratory waders. It was a stunning site, and a great way to end the day's counting!

Thousands of Grey Teal on Lake Numalla

Numalla Lake in Currawinya National Park a Ramsar wetland site