Waterbirds at Lake George

[Marnix Zwankhuizen via Canberrabirds <>]

It’s great seeing the lake full again and attracting thousands of waterbirds. I was out on the west side of the lake later on 29 December. 

There were 100+ straw-necked ibis roosting on 2 smallish lumps of raised earth towards the centre of the lake. They were barely visible with my scope from Wheatley rest area.

Raptors included a sea-eagle perched on a fence post (seen from Badcoe) and a swamp harrier (seen from Wheatley).

Also saw the reported intermediate egret and several white-necked herons from Badcoe.

Marnix

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From: Canberrabirds <> on behalf of Michael Lenz via Canberrabirds <>
Sent: Saturday, January 1, 2022 9:25:35 AM
To: chatline <>
Subject: [Canberrabirds] Waterbirds at Lake George

 

The substantial re-filling of Lake George has raised a great deal of interest. For the first time in many years one can now watch waterbirds on the western shore of the lake from several vantage points.  The lake is not yet full. North from the Badcoe VC rest area the shore line turns to the NE, away from the highway. Further rain and the water from several creeks that run into the lake may still flood remaining dry areas of the lake bed.

There have been many reports of waterbird sightings on ebird and several to the chatline.

COG waterbird surveys of the lake focus on its eastern side, the deeper part. 

The situation is very dynamic and numbers and species composition can change  quickly, depending to a great extent on events a great distance away from  Lake George (inland rainfalls and subsequent flooding, birds moving to suitable inland breeding sites etc.).

I thought readers may be interested in getting a summary of the number of waterbirds recorded on 29 and 30 December 21: the eastern side together with Julienne Kamprad on the 29th, the western side on my own at Badcoe VC and Wheatley VC rest areas, the Weereewa Lookout and the SW part along Lake Road on the 30th.

Waterbirds at Lake George 29/30 December 2021

Species	East side	West side			Total
		Badcoe VC	Wheatley VC	SW
Black Swan	323	34	20	7	384
Australian Shelduck	800	210	55	4	1069
Austral. Wood Duck	9	--	--	--	9
Australian Shoveler	88	250	35	128	501
Pacific Black Duck	2	8	71	5	86
Grey Teal	490	900	725	240	2355
Chestnut Teal	4	--	2	--	6
Pink-eared Duck	10	--	--	7	17
Hardhead	--	--	--	3	3
Blue-billed Duck	1	--	--	--	1
Hoary-headed Grebe	--	195 + 5 nests	2	2	199
Great Crested Grebe	--	--	--	1	1
Pied Stilt	--	--	--	15	15
Masked Lapwing	15	20	--	88	123
Silver Gull	75	200	40	40	355
Little Pied Corm.	--	--	--	1	1
Little Black Corm.	--	--	--	3	3
Australian Pelican	10	--	--	--	10
Intermediate Egret	--	1	--	--	1
White-necked Heron	--	1	--	--	1
White-faced Heron	12	6	--	66	84
Australian White Ibis	--	--	--	93	93
Straw-necked Ibis	1	13	--	1	15

Numbers at the Weereewa Lookout were very small and have been added to the count at Wheatley. To judge by what I could see while driving between the survey points, I would guess that actual numbers of swans, shelducks and ducks could be 20 to 30% higher.

Best wishes for good health and many interesting birds in 2022 to all,

Michael Lenz

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