White Necked Heron/Little Black Cormorant

["Wynton Maddeford" <>]

Hi All,

 

On 19 July 02 i  travelled down to North Dandalup 85kms south of Perth via Kargotich and Hopelands Rds. On the trip down saw 119 White Necked Herons, including 40 about 2.5kms west of the North Dandalup town along Lakes Rd.

 

The numbers were greater than a recent trip, probably due to the three extra pairs of eyes in the car.

  

(Interestingly when we made the turn off to Mandurah and followed the Lakes rd the15-20 kms to the coast, not one heron was seen.)

 

This indicates that this stretch of farmlands starting at Forrestdale,an area that is about 10 kms wide to the immediate west of the Darling Range, is at present a prime location for this heron in the SW at the moment.It possibly continues further south to Pinjarra and Bunbury and beyond as the farmlands are similar.   

 

On 23 July 02 went to Booragoon Lake in suburban Perth and noticed the Little Black Cormorants were nest building and displaying on nests. What was interesting was a cormorant that on at least 5 occasions flew down to the water's edge, dived underwater and appeared with a stick. It then flew to its nest to deposit the wet and slimy looking stick.There did not appear to be a shortage of sticks as the lake is well vegetated.This is the first time i have seen a cormorant dive underwater for nesting material.

 

Regards  Wynton  Maddeford  

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