Lake Wollumbolla and surrounds

["Graham Turner" <>]

Gidday Birders,

                        I have just returned from a short but enjoyable holiday to Culburra, about two hours south of Sydney (east of Nowra). I managed to do quite a bit of birding in this wonderful area.

 

Lake Wollumbolla may be familiar to those on birding-aus as a Little Tern breeding area. Well it would be, if it wasn't for the foxes. I meet the local volunteer shorebird counter who informed me that the fox baiting program got off to a great start, and then was stopped because 'there can't be any more foxes here.' By the time it was restarted the damage had been done. I saw one juv. bird only, maximum count of 25 individuals. The swans are a different story, apparently the count is up to 12, 000 which I could believe but didn't attempt to confirm. A truely awesome sight. Other birds included Sharp-tailed S/P (500-800) Red-necked Stints (150+) Barwits (80+ some comming into breeding plumage), Pacific Golden Plovers (11), Double-banded Plover (1), Turnstone (1) and a Curlew Sandpiper with only the slightest curve to its bill (don't like making waders fly, but....). Terns included Little, Crested, Gull-billed and Caspian).

 

At Orient Point whilst fishing in the Crookhaven River I saw both Oystercatchers plus a real highlight...Beach Stone-Curlew. There was at least one BSC, but it looked like there may have been 3, unfortunately they were too far away to be sure, so I had to be content with a few nice flathead.

 

The other highligh of the trip was the Square-tailed Kite just east of Nowra, flying so low my non-birding wife could see its white face as we drove past.

 

Cheers

Graham Turner