The bird fair is to be held again next year - it will be 3rd rather than
4th weekend of November. The Fair was a great event - the venue (a
former caravan park), has plenty of shady trees and the catering was
provided by the Leeton High School (cheap, plentiful, good food) and
some other vendors.
The tour Keith missed on the Wednesday before the start of the Wetlands
Forum was well attended - a full bus on the day. The tour visited
Gogeldrie Weir, Fivebough, and other spots, but the highlight for many
was the visit to Barren Box Swamp. A huge expanse of old black box (now
dead), where recent extensive earthworks have created various zones
which will manage the water. Very impressive, despite the fact that the
whole woodland is dead - they are now working out management plans.
Quite a bit of water in part of the swamp, and among the birds were
large numbers of avocets as well as spoonbills, egrets, teal and other
ducks... There is a sea eagle nest, and I noted a number of other
raptor nests among the dead trees.
The swamp is closed to the public.
On the Sunday morning of the bird fair Sean Dooley led a tour of the
Fivebough Swamp - which started with some useful (?) tips on how to
appear to be a 'cool' birdwatcher. Everyone appreciated not only his
wit, but his willingness to share, throughout the whole weekend, his
expertise and enthusiasm. He was guest speaker at the Forum dinner, and
gave a couple of talks at the Fair. On the Fivbough tour we saw
sharp-tailed, marsh and wood sandpipers, spotted and spotless crakes,
dotterels, golden-headed cisticolas, white-fronted chats, 3 whistling
kites, grass wrens and all the usual waterbird suspects mentioned in
Keith's message. The ephemeral areas of the swamp will start to dry
over next few weeks. Didn't encounter any of the resident red-bellied
blacks on that walk, but the two previous mornings I'd had close
encounters with half a dozen of them - no hissing - they were warming up
on the edge of the paths in the relative cool of the morning , and some
stuck around for several minutes while I stood only a few feet away and
watched them. Gillian Gilbert from the UK is spending a little more time
in Leeton to do some research into the Australasian bitterns, but had
already recorded some in the wee small hours of Sunday morning at
Fivebough.
On Sunday afternoon I joined a small, hastily organised trip out to
Tuckerbil Swamp, which is largely dry at present (thanks to Kimberley,
the part-time education officer). A few weeks ago there were quite a
number of brolgas there, but not a great deal of obvious birdlife in the
middle of the day there at present.
Sandra Henderson
National Library of Australia
Email:
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