Hi all,
I was to have done the summer count of all inner Pumicestone Passage
roosts on Monday with Moreton Bay Regional Council officers. Before we
got to any roosts the boat broke down, and I found myself unexpectedly
rescuing my council mates. Roost counts abandoned. For the next two days
one or other of us was unavailable. Then we found out that there were no
drivers available for the rest of the week. So I called on my mates in
Sunshine Coast Council to help us out with a boat and driver. Thanks to
them, this is planned for Friday, and we hope the weather is kind enough
to let us get out there.
One roost, deep behind mangroves in Glass Mountain Creek, takes a lot of
time to access, and can be tricky on the lower tides. So I decided to
cut it from our boat trip this Friday, and to drive through the forestry
to get in on foot today.
Bingo! I really hit paydirt. 300 Eastern Curlew. Let me tell you why
this surprises me. Some years ago for about 3 years I used to do a
passage roost run by boat with Rob King. We stumbled on the Glass Mtn Ck
claypan one exploratory day, and all I could recall later was that there
were 'some curlews' in there. When David Milton and I later undertook to
map all the roosts in MBRC area, I conducted a few trips in there to try
to find the roost through deep mangrove forests, but all I could come up
with was a few Whimbrel, and not in the same place. But time had made my
memory a bit foggy. Nevertheless I mapped it because I had a gut feeling
that this was worth watching.
Today I trudged through the thick black sludge of the claypan, seeing no
waders, mentally writing my 'nil' QWSG form as I walked. I was close to
the end of the section I regarded as worthwhile for waders, when I heard
the cry of Eastern Curlew. It would have been exactly at the high tide
(BB1.8M) at that moment. I ran like mad to hide behind a mangrove as
they approached. They wheeled several times and gave me the opportunity
to keep estimating their number. Then about 200 peeled off and headed
downstream and (I think) dropped in to another claypan nearby, where I
have never been. The other hundred dropped down to the exact place where
I had seen them many years ago. I crept up on them, and to my shame, I
was unsuccessful in keeping them on the ground whilst I counted them
properly. They were too smart for me. Up they went to join the others
across the creek. They were really skittish.
My interpretation of this is that the roost is possibly most useful in
wet years. For years it has been mostly dry, but this season this roost
is a real mud slush of a place. The claypan was covered in water even on
so paltry a tide, no doubt from recent rains. So I think that in wet
years we should expect or hope to find curlews using it. And my faith in
myself is right up there for persisting!
And I just wanted to share my delight with you. It isn't every day you
stumble across 300 Eastern Curlew you don't expect.
Cheers,
Jill
--
Jill Dening
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
26° 51' 41"S 152° 56' 00"E
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