Lake George today (6. Nov.)

[Martin Butterfield <>]

Michael's message (and an incorrect assessment that it was less windy today) got me to drive to Bungendore, along Lake Road nearly to Silver Wattle, and thence to the Highway and the two closest Lookouts.

There were hardly any birds, and no Plumed Whistling Ducks, at the three dams near Bungendore.  

The big dam on Lake Road is still brimming with water.  Highlights here were two Hoary-headed Grebes on nests; 2 Adult Shelduck with 3 young (probably approaching independence) and 3 Cattle Egrets in breeding plumage.

Driving down the road I stopped and scanned the lake and paddocks at opening in the trees.  Very few birds around with highlights being a Pacific Black Duck with 9 small ducklings on the Southern end of the Lake and Grey Teal with 8 very young ducklings at the place where Silver Wattle have a sign warning about getting bogged.

On getting to the Weereewa Lookout, despite my telescope vibrating in the gale, I could see a few Silver Gulls and Black Swans and 27 Australian Shelduck.  

There were also so dark blobs on the mud further North to I headed up to the next rest area (Wheatley?) which gave me a glimpse of dark blobs further South.  So on my way back as I drew level with the blobs I pulled briefly on to the hard shoulder and counted a further 170 Shelduck.  Again a few Silver Gulls and Black Swans.  No sign of the Banded Lapwings (a few Masked Lapwings were visible); Terns or Avocets reported by Michael.

Martin

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On 6 November 2016 at 20:24, Michael Lenz <> wrote:

Today I stopped at the 3 rest areas along the West side of Lake George. Clearly, the lake is fuller than it has been for a long time, but it still has a long way to go before it can be considered 'full'.

At the Badcoe area  2 Banded Lapwings, at the Wheatley site 3 Whiskered Terns and at the Weereewa Lookout 8 Red-necked Avocets.

But in all cases birds were some distance from the shore (telescope views) and the strong wind made  scanning the lake rather difficult.

The only other waterbirds in some numbers I could make out were Black Swans and some Silvergulls . This combined with the results of recent surveys by Julienne Kamprad on the eastern side of Lake George, clearly shows that the lake is at the moment more or less free of waterbirds, not unexpected, though. In due course, once the flooded inland waters dry up, the lake will again revert to its main role as an important drought refuge.  

Michael Lenz