birding-aus

What's happened at Lake Galletly, Gatton?

To: 'Birding-aus' <>
Subject: What's happened at Lake Galletly, Gatton?
From: Richard Nowotny <>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2016 00:27:44 +0000
What’s particularly interesting at the Western Treatment Plant is that not only 
have tens of thousands of ducks left for greener inland pastures (not a single 
Grey Teal or Pink-eared Duck seen last Monday – often present in thousands – 
and almost everything else seen in ones and twos other than Black Duck and 
Chestnut Teal) but so have all the Hoary-headed Grebes (usually hundreds, even 
thousands), Great Crested Grebes, spoonbills, avocets, Banded Stilts, Cape 
Barren Geese, and most of the Black-winged Stilts (I saw only one), ibis (only 
one White Ibis, although tens of Straw-necked remain), herons (only one 
White-faced) and egrets. It’s quite an exodus. The place looks eerily deserted, 
with pond after pond entirely bird-free.

Richard

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus  On Behalf Of 
Dave Torr
Sent: Wednesday, 26 October 2016 7:27 PM
To: Penny Brockman
Cc: birding-aus
Subject: Whats happened at Lake Galletly, Gatton?

 

Yes indeed. The famous Western Treatment Plant at Werribee is almost deserted 
by waterfowl at the moment.

 

 

On 26 Oct 2016 7:19 PM, "Penny Brockman" < <> 
> wrote:

 

> One thought - all the rain out west has attracted them to "better pastures"

 

 

> On 26/10/16 6:08 PM, David Taylor wrote:

> 

>> I’ve been a regular visitor to Lake Galletly at the UQ Campus at 

>> Gatton, Sth-east Queensland  for many years and had some memorable 

>> birding encounters there. At its peak there were hundreds of 

>> Pink-eared Ducks, thousands of Plumed Whistling-ducks and similar numbers of 
>> Magpie Geese.

>> Mixed amongst that were the likes of Blue-billed Ducks, Grey, Pacific 

>> Black, various Egrets, Herons, Cormorants, shorebirds, coots, 

>> swamphens etc as well as occasional Native-hens, Bitterns, Crakes and 

>> other rarities that have showed up there.

>> 

>> Over recent visits every time I go there though there appear to be 

>> less and less birds!  Cattle Egrets have colonised the areas around 

>> both ponds and appear to have breeding cycles a couple of times a 

>> year and then move on.

>> 

>> I was amazed yesterday on my way home from Durikai to visit and see 

>> so few birds - not a Pink-eared in sight or a Magpie Goose - greatly 

>> reduced Whistling-ducks and a tiny smattering of other birds - I 

>> noticed some rather horrid green algae covering some of the lake and 

>> wondered if the water is affected at some level? There are numbers 

>> of Cattle Egret who appear to be in the early stages of a breeding 

>> bout but not much else. I do understand that wetland areas can change 

>> with climate/environmental issues and this can see variances in 

>> numbers but it does seem this terrific spot has lost its appeal for many of 
>> the local birds lately ….. any thoughts?

>> 

>> Cheers

>> 

>> David Taylor

<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR> 
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU