With ex-tropical cyclone Sid lined up in a daisy chain with TC's Katrina,
Susan and Ron across the Pacific it is definitely "Singing in the Rain"
time here in North Queensland. Highway 1 between Townsville and Cairns is
cut at Tully and at Babinda.
Yesterday was the designated date for the Wader Count at Lucinda, outside
of Ingham and I was polishing off the Weetbix when the phone rang at 5.15
am. It was TOWNBOC President Jock Payet who was scheduled to take part.
"Do you think we ought to go? The weather forecast is for heavy showers
all along the coast and it's bucketing down here at Pallarenda" (a
fashionable bayside suburb in Townsville). In less fashionable Gulliver where
I live in harmony amid neighbours who have tattoos and drive utilities, it was
hardly raining at all.
I thought about it. I needed to buy petrol, I had books to give to Ian,
damn it I was afoot! So I told Jock i was going ahead as baseline data on
waders is fairly meaningless if collected only when weather conditions
suit humans. If necessary we would turn back.
I rendezvous-ed with Ian (driving a utility but as far as i am aware,
tattoo-less) and we set out along Highway 1. Rain came in bands but we
made the 110km to Ingham without incident and did the loop around Toobanna
looking out for Barn swallows on the telephone wires but finding none.
Ingham had had heavy rain the previous night and the sugar cane was
standing in water. As rain eased we headed for the Community Wetlands and
caught a tantalising glimse of a rail before the skies opened up again.
It was time to retreat to a friend's place for a coffee and a change of
clothes (being a grub from way-back I usually carry some spare clothing).
Recharged we set out again and checked the metallic starlings nesting in
the main street then the low level bridge crossing of the Herbert River at
Gairloch. The road was barricaded and doning our wet weather gear we
walked down to look at the river, spotting a yellow oriole on the way.
The Herbert River rises in the Atherton Tablelands and for its size the
catchment carries an amazing percentage of Queensland's runoff. Here in
the lower catchment the river was 5.3 metres above the base of Gairloch
bridge.
We back tracked to Highway 1 where happily the bridge is still above the
swirling waters and took the Lucinda turnoff. "RAPTOR!' shouted Ian and I
skidded to a halt. We jumped out. "SQUARE TAILED KITEC!" We got
marvellous views as it quarterly the trees bordering Ripple Creek.
And so on to Lucinda where Richard, who owns a tinny and is married to
Diane, a new birder, greeted us. "Too rough for the tinny," he said. "I'd
be surprised if any birds were out there today." He tactfully missed
out 'or humans mad enough to go looking for them.'
We headed for the spit and Ian had a quick word with 'upstairs' asking
that the rain stay off for 20 minutes. Ian obviously has influence as we
were granted almost an hour free of rain, though the wind attempted to
sand blast us. I had left the tally sheets in the car and used a tape
recorder. A female LEAST FRIGATE BIRD sailed over our heads.
The numbers of waders and terns are estimates only, given the conditions.
But we had a great days birding, recording 71 species in total between
Townsville and Lucinda.
WADERS IDENTIFIED (Numbers are estimates only)
least frigatebird 1 (female)
red knot at least 1
great knot ~ 600
bar tailed godwit > 100
crested terns > 50
lesser crested terns ~ 14
little terns > 400
caspian terns 2
common terns 21
eastern curlew 1
large sand plover 1 (chasing mongolians along the beach)
mongolian sand plover ~35
pied oystercatchers 29
silver gull 1
Pelicans were absent, as were pacific golden plovers, red capped
dottrells and whimbrels. We expect that the pelicans had gone inland, the
whimbrel to the mangroves and the plovers were sheltering in the dune
scrub.
By last night ex-tropical Cyclone Sid (a tropical low) was crossing over
Cape York from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the east coast and Lucinda was
experiencing gale force winds.
Alex Appleman
Townsville
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