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Moreton Bay Waders 14 March 2009

To: L&L Knight <>
Subject: Moreton Bay Waders 14 March 2009
From: Jill Dening <>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:21:23 +1000
Laurie,

This morning I spoke to one of my contacts in the Caloundra Waterways Team, and he was at that moment cleaning up oil on Bribie Island beachside. He said that no oil had entered any of the Sunshine Coast estuaries, which means that shorebirds are safe. I asked about terns, and he said he knew of no terns coming in for care, although he understood that there were some oiled birds on the ocean side of Moreton which took the brunt of the damage. He didn't know any more than that. I know he wouldn't fudge with me, so I believe that.

Cheers,

Jill
Jill Dening
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

26° 51' 41"S	152° 56' 00"E


L&L Knight wrote:
I was interested to see someone in the media saying the impact of the oil spill wouldn't be so bad because many waders had already commenced their northward migration.

An inspection of the Manly wader roost on Saturday revealed that numbers for most species were at their summer average.  I didn't try counting the godwits, but would guess there were more than 500 present.  I did count about 60 golden plovers and the usual lone Grey Plover.  There seemed to be more Tereks, Sharpies & Curlew Sands than normal, but only a dozen or so Eastern Curlews.  Many of the godwits and a few of the curlew sands were into their breeding plumage, relatively few of the golden plovers were far into their moults.

There were about a dozen [lesser to my eyes] sandplovers in breeding plumage, and the what appeared to be the odd double-bar in faded breeding plumage.  There was a lone greenshank.  Overall, stint numbers were a bit lower than normal and very few had any noticeable colour.  The number of Great Knots was about normal, but they were mainly laying down.  As it was a calm day, the [hundreds of] tattlers were roosting out in the open.

A couple of Mangrove Bitterns [SH] did a circuit around the roost and an immature bird landed near me.  It had its neck extended upwards, like a periscope, making it appear a most peculiar bird.

I didn't see any oiled birds at the roost, although it was interesting to see there was a black residue on a section of the fringe of the tidal pond.  There wasn't any oil on the rocks outside of the roost, so I suspect that residue might be the result of a separate event.

Regards, Laurie.
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