Brisbane Water Saturday 4 December 2004: Leader Alan Morris.
32 members and friends gathered at the Brickworks Rd Boat-Ramp, on a
pleasant morning to check out the birds around Pelican Island before
proceeding to the ferry wharf where we were to take a return ferry trip to
Empire Bay via the Lintern Channel between Saratoga & Rileys Island NR, and
the Cockle Channel between and Davistown and Empire Bay. By the time we
boarded the ferry at 9.30 we had already seen 28 species around the
Boat-ramp and ferry wharf. These included nesting Magpie-larks and Willie
Wagtails, Figbirds, Koel & Channel-billed Cuckoos, Eastern Curlew,
Sea-eagle, White-breasted Woodswallow & White-faced Heron. During the hour
long ferry ride aboard the S.S. Saratoga (which proved ideal for bird
watching), we had good views of Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Grey-tailed
Tattler, Striated Heron, Little & Great Egret, Royal Spoonbill, Pied
Oystercatcher, Darter & 4 species of Cormorants. Back to the Boat-ramp for
morning tea and watching the waterways.
Our next stop was the reserve opposite Ramsay Island in Blackalls Bay where
there is a nesting colony of Pelicans and White Ibis. The Pelican colony,
consisted of about 50-60 courting Pelicans, 80+ nests, and another 80-100
pairs with chicks large and small. The White Ibis nests were placed amongst
the Pelican nests and there seemed to be about 60 nests, plus other pairs
with large young. We were able to observed a juvenile Koel being fed by Red
Wattlebirds, another Striated Heron and unexpectantly a Short-tailed
Shearwater, which eventually took off and flew to another part of the Bay.
We moved from here to our lunch spot at Empire Bay, overlooking Cockle
Channel and here we joined nesting Willy Wagtails and a group of
White-breasted Woodswallows. Figbirds, Little Wattlebirds & a pair of
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes.
Our final stops for the day were firstly Palmers Lane, Bensville which gave
us a good view of Cockle Broadwater with its 50+ flock of Black Swan, and a
variety of bushbirds like Brown Thornbill, Lewin's Honeyeater, Grey Fantail,
Superb fairy-wren, Red-browed Finch and Brown Thornbill, and then a brief
stop at the Kincumber Pony Club to see the nesting Bush Stone-curlews,
inside their electric fence and hoping that this third clutch of the season
might hatched successfully! 47 species were seen for the day but as we had
spent the day only in estuarine habitat it could not be expected that the
species list would have been higher. (A,Morris)
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