Australian White Ibis breeding

["John Bundock" <>]

If I recall correctly, there was a large colony of ibis heavily polluting the lake at Yowani. The Club was ordered by the Government to clean up its water because of the heavy level of pollution of the water leaving Yowani. It had no real choice in the matter and reluctantly cut down the trees as the only way to move on the Ibis and stop the pollution. This is one of the balances (like kangaroo culling) we must expect of wildlife management in an urban setting.

 

John Bundock

 

From: David Cook [
Sent: Monday, 3 November 2014 4:48 PM
To: 'chatline'
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Australian White Ibis breeding

 

Mark

 

You are of course referring to the FORMER Australian White Ibis breeding colony at Yowani – that colony was deliberately destroyed a couple of years ago to very little fanfare either on this chatline or anyone else really.

 

Environmental vandalism at its worst - a classic case of “not in my backyard”.

 

David

 

From:

Sent: Monday, November 03, 2014 4:27 PM

To: m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");" title="">'chatline'

Subject: [canberrabirds] Australian White Ibis breeding

 

Good afternoon all,

 

Yesterday (Sunday) I took my wife out to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve to show her a live platypus, a species she had never seen in the wild before. We had excellent looks at a single animal on the “weir pond” just after the top entry to the “Sanctuary”. Before moving down to the weir I spent a couple of minutes looking out from the viewing platform near the beginning of the walk, I could hear numerous squeaking calls coming from the pond at the front and below the platform that sounded like chicks of some sort. After watching an Australian White Ibis fly in to the area I finally managed to see one bird feeding at least two small black chicks.

 

Today at around 1pm , I received an email from Pam Cooke, a volunteer at Tidbinbilla NR, letting me know that Australian White Ibis were breeding on Pond 2. I know of one other site in Canberra where AWI have bred (Yowani Golf Course near North Lyneham), and am aware of the records on the Federal Highway that have been placed on the chat line. I replied to Pam advising her that this was an important record and that I would put in an “Incidental Report Record” to COG.

 

While there I also noticed a Dusky Moorhen nest building in what I think is the “Brolga Pond”. I will also put in a record for this as well.

 

mark