Hi Jill and other ternophiles.
To add a little more to the growing list of tern reports...
I ran another of my monthly raptor surveys of Southern Moreton Bay
(south of Brisbane) yesterday, with Robin Black, Helen Horton and
Lil Spadijer on board the "Tegwane", with COASTCARE helping to pay
for the fuel bills. This was a little unusual in that
it covered low tide and I usually go over the high tide.
We got a total of nearly 140 raptors, mainly Whistling and Brahminy
Kites but also some good close up views of White-bellied Sea-eagles
and Ospreys. As in previous years, both here and on Pumicestone Passage,
raptor numbers are starting to decline after the winter peak.
With the low tide, many more sand banks and mud flats were exposed and
on one of these we counted c. 150 Little Terns. There is an area
nearby where they have bred in the past and this has now been fenced
off by Q.NPWS to help their breeding success. This was just to the
west of the northern end of South Stradbroke Island.
Then, on the return journey, we came across 56 Gull-billed Terns
on a bank opposite Russell Island. The latter were all in breeding
dress with full black caps.
We also saw a few Crested Terns and one Caspian Tern along the way.
Cheers
Pete
Dr Peter Woodall email =
Division of Vet Pathology & Anatomy
School of Veterinary Science. Phone = +61 7 3365 2300
The University of Queensland Fax = +61 7 3365 1355
Brisbane, Qld, Australia 4072 WWW = http://www.uq.edu.au/~anpwooda
"hamba phezulu" (= "go higher" in isiZulu)
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