Banded Stilts, Flinders Island.

[Andrew Taylor <>]

On Sat, Mar 03, 2012 at 10:39:17AM +1030, Gary Wright wrote:
> There are usually but not always a few banded stilts in the lake on the
> left on the way into Pt Augusta SA.  There are many at the moment-my guess
> is approx 1000 and I have wondering if this is as a result of good rains
> last year inland and therefore good breeding.

The rain event that is saturatingmuch of NSW has also dumped a lot of
water close to Lake Eyre.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/rain_maps.cgi?map=contours&variable=totals&area=aus&period=week&region=aus&time=latest
Lake Eyre had almost dried out but appparently this "local" rain may
see it more than 1m deep again with hopefully Banded Stilt breeding 
opportunities.

The flooding in SW Queensland earlier in the year was apparently more
in the Darling catchment with not enough water into the Eyre catchment
to have much impact on the lake - although presumably enough for plenty
of waterbird breeding further north  as it wanders down the Cooper Creek
and other drainages.

Andrew