Last week Geoff Duggan reported the presence of breeding Fairy Terns on the
NSW far south coast (Lake Wallagoot) on the Canberra Bird Hot Line.
I went down to check these out over the weekend and found a small colony of
perhaps 25 birds with 5-8 flying, immature young (that I could see). With
them I saw a few Little Terns, but wasn't able to say definitely that any of
the immatures belonged to the Littles rather than the Fairies.
This delighted me as I have never seen Fairy Terns before and certainly
didn't expect to see them in NSW. In fact the breeding record represents a
definite extension of range over that recorded in HANZAB, and according to
that work breeding has never been confirmed in NSW before.
So perhaps other people would like to check them out and submit reports &c
(or tell me who to send the report to). But you'd better hurry as the young
were, as I said, well-developed and flying and beginning to fish for themselves.
At his spot you get great views of the terns and there were also many other
nice things, including Crested Terns, Pelicans, Chestnut Teal, Shelduck,
Greenshank, Curlew Sands, Red-necked Stints, and a Spotless Crake (in the
marsh vegetation).
Directions: from Bega take the Tathra road, but turn off to Merimbula after
about 12km. After about 5 km turn off to the left at the sign for Lake
Wallagoot Yatch Club. Drive up to the Yatch club and park and carry on
walking around the north shore eastwards. Follow it as it curves round and
walk out along the spit. At the end there is an island 20m beyond the end of
the spit and here is where the Terns are.
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John Leonard (Dr),
PO Box 243,
Woden, ACT 2606
'It's a beautiful planet,
If you care to scan it...'
Cole Porter
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jleonard
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