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Post mortem Noosa (SEQld) shorebird surveys Thursday, March 5, 2009

To: birding-aus <>
Subject: Post mortem Noosa (SEQld) shorebird surveys Thursday, March 5, 2009
From: Jill Dening <>
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:37:47 +1000
Hi All,

Just forwarding a report on our shorebird surveys yesterday of the Noosa estuary. Species and numbers are at the bottom, for high tide, low tide and for the evening tern arrivals. Just skip over the parts not relevant to your own interests.

Cheers,

Jill
Jill Dening
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

26° 51' 41"S	152° 56' 00"E



Hi Everyone,

Results are below.

It was in splendid weather that a tiny team carried out yesterday's surveys. The morning low tide survey team was just Jan England and I, and we were joined for the afternoon high tide and evening tern counts by Allen Briggs. Allen and his wife, Anne, came to the evening survey armed with liquid and nibble refreshment. I can't tell you how good it felt to be sitting overlooking a mirror-glass river reflected against an almost cloudless sky with barely a breath of wind as thousands of migratory terns (Little, Common and White-winged Black) wound their way back and forth in tight streams. The sunset was great. We counted prior to sunset as terns arrived early and in orderly, easily countable streams. The stream stopped at 2250 birds. We waited, sipping our wine. Tourists and locals, as always, approached us and asked us what we were doing, and, for once we had time to answer. And just as suddenly all the migrants up and left, in their steady stream, a river of terns. The estuary was once again empty of migratory terns. More waiting. More wine sipping. The sun set. A few hundred arrived, then left again. Another ten minutes passed. And then they came, a continuous river of migrants, countable, but only just at times, until they came to a trickle and then a halt by 7pm. It may have been a great thing to witness, but in fact the numbers are still very, very poor. We are down by 30,000 on some previous years.

During the day we found the estuary very much changed, so that you can no longer boat along the western side of the north spit. It is completely barred by sand now. Council officers please take note that the vehicle closure of the north spit is now more vital than ever, because if a vehicle now drives onto the spit, it can continue at low tide right across to the closed breeding island where the Beach Stone-Curlews are, and there is so much valuable habitat there which shouldn't be put at risk by tyre wheels. When Easter comes, there will be very low tides, and we ask the compliance people to be aware of the likelihood of vehicles breaking the rules to access the sand island. Also for council officers, we found two bollards removed from the barrier. One was in the intertidal zone off the sand island, and the other was high up on the spit just south of the main signage. Next time your people are there, would they mind replacing them? We were carrying too much equipment to take them with us.

On a bright note, we saw 2 Banded Lapwings in the intertidal zone. We couldn't believe our eyes, but we have photos to prove it. Of all the White-winged Black Terns, only one showed in overhead flight as having any of the black armpits of breeding plumage. Chris Barnes had given up his place in the boat to stay in Bundaberg to show people a rare bird, and he was missing out on photographing the birds he most wanted to photograph - White-wings.

Below are the results of the day's work. Jan and Allen, please let me know of any errors or omissions.

The next survey is on April 3, beginning at 9am. Please put it in your diary whilst it's on your mind.

Cheers,

Jill

Tide Position: 1=high; 3=low; 5= evening tern count from observation point Noosa Woods






Survey_Date Tide_Position Species_Id Common_Name Sum Of Number_Seen Totals
05-Mar-09 1 2 CommonTern 26
05-Mar-09 1 3 Crested Tern 107
05-Mar-09 1 6 White-winged Black Tern 2
05-Mar-09 1 8 Silver Gull 77
05-Mar-09 1 9 Terns migratory 150
05-Mar-09 1 10 Eastern Curlew 8
05-Mar-09 1 11 Whimbrel 18
05-Mar-09 1 12 Bar-tailed Godwit 43
05-Mar-09 1 18 Common Greenshank 2
05-Mar-09 1 21 Red-necked Stint 5
05-Mar-09 1 27 Red-capped Plover 15
05-Mar-09 1 29 Pacific Golden Plover 28
05-Mar-09 1 38 Pied Cormorant 4
05-Mar-09 1 48 Whistling Kite 2
05-Mar-09 1 49 Brahminy Kite 1
05-Mar-09 1 55 Sacred Kingfisher 2
05-Mar-09 1 64 Banded Lapwing 2 492
05-Mar-09 3 2 CommonTern 2700
05-Mar-09 3 3 Crested Tern 16
05-Mar-09 3 5 Little Tern 300
05-Mar-09 3 6 White-winged Black Tern 300
05-Mar-09 3 8 Silver Gull 8
05-Mar-09 3 10 Eastern Curlew 7
05-Mar-09 3 11 Whimbrel 19
05-Mar-09 3 12 Bar-tailed Godwit 37
05-Mar-09 3 18 Common Greenshank 1
05-Mar-09 3 20 Terek Sandpiper 1
05-Mar-09 3 27 Red-capped Plover 6
05-Mar-09 3 29 Pacific Golden Plover 29
05-Mar-09 3 31 Pied Oystercatcher 1
05-Mar-09 3 38 Pied Cormorant 3
05-Mar-09 3 43 White-faced Heron 3
05-Mar-09 3 48 Whistling Kite 2
05-Mar-09 3 49 Brahminy Kite 1
05-Mar-09 3 51 White-bellied Sea-Eagle 1
05-Mar-09 3 58 Beach Stone-Curlew 2
05-Mar-09 3 63 Australian Kestrel 1
05-Mar-09 3 64 Banded Lapwing 2 3440
05-Mar-09 5 3 Crested Tern 190
05-Mar-09 5 8 Silver Gull 31
05-Mar-09 5 9 Terns migratory 7400
05-Mar-09 5 31 Pied Oystercatcher 2 7623



-- 
Jill Dening
PO Box 362
10 Piat Place
Beerwah Qld 4519
Australia 
26° 51' 41"S	152° 56' 00"E
07 5494 0994
0419 714405
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