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Significant Bird Event
By
Jim Downey
Birds Australia CEO
Arguably one of the most
extraordinary events associated with migratory waders in Australia in recent
years is occurring right now in North Western Australia. Last Saturday
and Sunday the 7 & 8 February 2004, Members of Birds Australia ( BA )
and our special interest group the Australasian Wader Studies Group lead by
Dr Clive Minton ( BA Fellow ) counted between 2.4 and 2.8 MILLION Oriental
Pratincoles at 80 mile beach ( Anna Plains station). The previous
estimate of the total Australian population of this bird was 60,000
!!!
An extract of Clive's email of Monday 9 Feb advising us of this
remarkable event is reproduced here :
When we arrived here on
February 2nd it was immediately apparent that an unusual situation
existed. For the last 100km of the journey the bush on either side of
the main highway was alive with feeding Oriental Pratincoles. In the
late afternoon vast clouds (smokes) of birds could be seen swirling around
over many parts of the plains and these gradually descended towards dusk to
roost for the night in quite dense patches all over the agricultural
grasslands of the plain. Next day their daily pattern became apparent.
From dawn birds fed extensively all over the grassland of the station
and further inland amongst the bush at least as far back as the Great
Northern Highway.
As the day heated up (the weather was relatively
settled and calm and sunny throughout) the birds gradually moved down to the
coast where they collected in huge aggregations on the upper mud flats and
as the tide rose on the sandy beaches.
We have obviously been
speculating as to why such a huge number of birds is present here now but
has never previously been recorded. The previous most similar
situation was in January 2000 when a minimum of 50,000 Oriental Pratincoles
were observed on Anna Plains Station. However, in that
year
there was extensive water on the agricultural pastureland and birds were
therefore not needing to adjourn to the beach during the heat of the
day. No extensive surveys or wider population estimates were attempted
or possible at that time. It would appear that in 2004 conditions
have
been absolutely perfect to attract the maximum number of Oriental
Pratincoles to feed in the area of farmland adjacent to 80 Mile Beach and
that weather and habitat conditions have been the optimum to force them to
use the beach during the day where they could be observed and
counted.
Nevertheless it is still quite a staggering increase
of previous estimates of the population of this species and one which would
be difficult to believe by anyone who had not seen this phenomenal sight of
beaches densely covered with pratincoles a kilometre or so wide for
stretches tens of kilometres
long.
Jim
Downey
Chief Executive Officer
Birds Australia
Ph ( 03 ) 9882
2622
Birds Australia - Winner Banksia Award 2003, Eureka Prize 2003,
Whitley Medal 2003
visit our website at www.birdsaustralia.com.au
Birds Australia
415
Riversdale Road
Hawthorn East VIC 3123
1300 730
075
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