Hi all
A depressing conversation with Jill Denning about the precipitous decline of
waders and terns in northwest Moreton Bay made me wonder if anyone has
actually come up with a reason for this. I carelessly remarked that maybe
people and dogs were the problem, but when I think about it, that doesn't
make much sense.
One of the really big changes in Moreton Bay in the last 30 or 40 years has
been the standard of sewerage treatment. In the 70's, you could walk out
along the pipe to the outflow at Luggage Point and watch the foul-smelling
black gunk pour straight into the mouth of the Brisbane River. It was
heaven! There were always a few hundred White-winged Black Terns diving into
the mass of mullet writhing around at the end of the pipe and thousands of
waders crowded the mudflats. A great joy was standing back in the mangroves
and watching the waders pile onto the first bits of mud exposed by the
falling tide.
If you think about it, most of the really good wader sites are fundamentally
filthy places. As a youth, I loved the smell of sewerage, as it meant the
possibility of some good Sandpipers nearby. Much of my most enjoyable
birding was done around places which really weren't very nice - typically
bits of foul land lying around the backs of industrial sites, or sewerage
outfalls. They always smelled!
Is it possible our anti-pollution obsession has killed the Bay's
productivity? Perhaps we could restore some of it by cutting back on the
treatment, presumably at negative cost. NEGATIVE COST! Better hurry, before
everyone gets used to nice clean sand the kids can play in.
Cheers,
Chris Corben.
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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