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Bribie Island notes - October 1st 2011

To: "'Jill Dening'" <>, <>
Subject: Bribie Island notes - October 1st 2011
From: "John Walter" <>
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 10:13:47 +1000
Hi Jill,
The Wilson River was still a wondrous sight mid September when we spent 2
days just watching the action. As you said thousands and hundreds of birds,
which must suggest millions of fish!! I would add Great Egrets there as well
in big numbers.
John and Ruth Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Jill Dening
Sent: Saturday, 1 October 2011 9:52 PM
To: 
Cc: Birding Aus
Subject: Bribie Island notes - October 1st 2011

Trevor,

An amazing sighting for the Sunshine Coast!

If I hadn't been in South-west Queensland recently, I would have thought 
you'd been on the turps this evening. Well, maybe you were, but your 
sighting follows what I saw at the Wilson River at Noccundra in late 
August. There were herons everywhere - White-necked, Nankeen Night 
Herons, and Darters by the bucketload. Cormorants, Pelicans, they were 
all there in hundreds and thousands. And a lot of them were immatures. 
They were catching fish like crazy. The weather has warmed up quite a 
lot since then, or maybe the abundant fish supply has dropped off and 
caused them to migrate coastwards. I'm sure Noccundra wasn't the only 
place hosting such large gatherings of water birds. And as it dries up 
out west, the birds will be looking for fresh pastures.



Cheers,

Jill

Jill Dening
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

26° 51' 41"S    152° 56' 00"E

On 1/10/2011 9:00 PM, Trevor Ford wrote:
> G'day,
>
> A few notes on recent sightings on Bribie Island, some 50 km north of
> Brisbane, Qld.
>
> Today, October 1st, I was driving towards the Kakadu Beach shorebird
> roost when I noticed a distant flock of birds over the road ahead. They
> were circling, so unlikely to be the Topknot Pigeons that Bribie has
> been hosting recently. I drove quickly towards them and, as I got
> closer, thought they were going to turn out to be Little Black
> Cormorants - but when I hopped out of the car for a better look I
> realised that they were Australasian Darters, all 85 of them! It was an
> amazing sight, watching them circling overhead; I don't think that I've
> ever seen more than four together on Bribie Island previously. There
> were very strong westerly winds blowing all morning - could this have
> been responsible for the influx? Any other recent reports of such
> numbers from coastal SEQ?
>
> Buckley's Hole later held 16 Australasian Darters, by far the most I've
> heard of occurring there together. In the past few days at Buckley's
> Hole there have been 14 Nankeen Night Herons (all present in the same
> tree yesterday), 4 White-necked Herons, a Latham's Snipe, 2 Comb-crested
> Jacanas, 9 Wandering Whistling Ducks, etc., etc. Further to the recent
> postings on egret identification, there are currently 5-10 individuals
> each of Little, Intermediate and Great Egrets, often next to each other
> and affording great comparison opportunities. The free comparison sheet
> of egrets and cormorants, featuring photographs taken by Bob Inglis,
> could prove useful.
>
> There are now plenty of shorebirds roosting at Kakadu Beach but no sign
> today or yesterday of the Broad-billed Sandpiper of a week or so ago.
> There are, however, at least 28 Red Knots, with several in breeding
> plumage, as are several of the 100+ Great Knots. Of the 1500+ Bar-tailed
> Godwits, several were immature birds (probably 10+ but difficult to
> count accurately when they're huddled together in gale-force winds and
> braving the resultant sand storm). I understand that this is quite an
> early date for immature godwits to appear here.
>
> Cheers - Trevor Ford.
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