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About Bundamba | Aug 7 | Jul 9 | Jun 5 l May 1 l Apr 3 l 2010
 Bundamba Lagoon is on an upper reach of Bundamba Creek, south of Ripley. Formerly and frequently called Daly’s Lagoon, it is on a 1200ha property, Stewartdale, belonging to the Sporting Shooters Association, purchased as a location for their rifle range and other facilities. They are managing the property as a conservation project, including the restoration and rehabilitation of the wetlands and the other significant ecosystems after years as a cattle property.
From March 2005, BASQ has been doing monthly surveys to monitor the birdlife of the lagoon. Contact Margaret Cameron , 07 3282 9151 or
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, if you would like to join the surveyors on the first Saturday of the month. (She has an email list if you would like to hear news about the Bundamba Wetland.)
August 7
It was a very cold early, lots of
frost at Ripley, and to my horror as I drove down the Ripley road I saw a
cloud - the only one, very low, and it was easy to guess where it would be -
yes, right over our lagoon! And really thick! So although we met at 7.30
we could not see properly to count until 8! But soon it was a
beautiful day. The water level has dropped a bit and there is beginning to be
a some mud here and there around the shoreline, so maybe we will get more
waders.
On the survey we saw 2 Black Swans, only one Wood
Duck, 25 Pacific Black Ducks, 85 Grey Teal, 9 Hardheads, and a pair of
Bluebills; 171 Australasian Grebes; only 2 Darters (and another off
survey) and 6 Little Pied Cormorants; 4 White-faced Herons, 1 Straw-necked Ibis
(and 7 more off survey), 3 Buff-banded Rails; one Jacana, 9 Black-winged
Stilts including 3 immatures, 5 Black-fronted Dotterels, and 10 Masked Lapwings
(they seem to have returned to the lake shore - for recent surveys almost
all have been up in the paddocks away from the water; this time 12 were up
the hill). No Swamphens or Moorhens were present in the survey area but there
was one Moorhen off suvey. (Very few birds of any kind were counted outside the
suvey area; for some reason they seemed quite nervous and flew around so almost
everything came into the survey area or past the survey points.) The raptors
were more interesting - as well as one Kestrel during the survey there was
at least one other, a pair of Black-shouldered Kites, and a very dark
Wedge-tailed Eagle, outside the survey.
Of course the best raptors were the White-bellied
Sea-eagles; a bird was sitting on the nest so we assume they have been
incubating for the 30 days since we last visited. (HANZAB says incubation may be
35-40 days, or even 6 weeks. So we'll soon know if there will be
chicks. There's a record of an infertile clutch being incubated for 51
days.) The other bird flew around going quite a long way away to the west (but
still in sight), then returned to the nest area. We assumed the sitting bird to
be the female but HANZAB says both sexes incubate. Late in our visit she left
the nest for some minutes, but returned to sit. PLEASE DO NOT GO ANYWHERE
NEAR THE NEST. We were quite a long way away but nevertheless probably
worried her.
After the count we visited Bayliss's Swamp nearby,
which as usual had birds we did not see at the big lagoon: Shovelers, Swamphens,
and Great and Intermediate Egrets. The Black Swans still have 5 cygnets. This
land has now been sold - not to the Council, so we don't know how well it will
be managed.
Thanks to all counters Meg Gordon, Kim Herbert, Des
King, Margaret Robertson and Roger Livsey, Michelle Khuu, Adriana Cardenas and
Fernando Espindola.Special thanks to Steve for slashing our survey
spaces and the paths to them; it makes it so much easier!
The next survey is on Saturday 4 September, meeting
at 7.30.
Margaret
Friday 9 July was a beautiful morning - perhaps a bit breezy - when we did our postponed survey at Daly's Lagoon. The water level has dropped a bit, and because of impressive road works it is again possible to drive from our first count point to the second. (Thanks Steve!) The various small trees around the lagoon are growing very well, and the grass is long, so it's all very picturesque, but it's also much harder to see all the birds - there's a lot of the water that is out of sight.
Waterfowl numbers were still low, with many species still missing; We had 2 Black Swans, 52 Grey Teal, 8 Wood Ducks, 8 Black Ducks, 7 Hardheads, 1 Shoveler, 2 Bluebills and 154 Australasian Grebes. Shorebirds were 7 Black-winged stilts including 2 immatures, 7 Black-fronted Dotterels, 20 Masked Japwings and an immature Jacana. Other birds included 5 Darters, 16 Little Pied and 1 Little Black Cormorants, 3 White-faced Herons, and 2 Buff-banded Rails. (No Coots, Moorhens, Swamphens, Pelicans, ibis, spoonbills...etc etc.) Raptors were 2 Black-shouldered Kites, 2 Brown Falcons (one the very dark bird we've been seeing for a long time), a Whistling Kite and a Kestrel - there's actually a pair of Kestrels but the other remained invisible during the survey.
Once again the bird of the day was seen off survey and in fact on the walk to the small dam (called by others Margaret's Fruitless Walk - I think I'll change it to my Treasure Hunt!)
The White-bellied Sea-Eagles have a nest! This is visible from the track near our second count point. PLEASE DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR THE NEST. They incubate for about 6 weeks and it would be terrible if the first nest we have seen in all these years failed because disturbance caused them to desert.
This raises another issue. The Sporting Shooters are concerned about trespassers. Quite apart from landowners' normal reluctance to have mysterious people wandering around on their land, because of the shooting activities they are required to be especially careful about security. Several times this year, people have been on the property - for example gates were left open on one occasion and the cattle got in to the lagoon area, the photographers we encountered were starting downhill and would have flushed our birds during the June survey, etc.
If we need to go on to the property outside survey days, we need to ask Steve the day before if it will be OK . (This includes me, having a look before the survey to see what's what.) Steve would prefer you to tell me first and I will give you his contact numbers. (I will be away for the next few days.) Then when you come on to the property, even if you are just gazing around from the first count point, you must go up to the house and sign the book in the little white shelter.
Thanks to Meg Gordon, Wendy Dunn, Kim Herbert, Jim Butler, Sarah Beavis, and Garth Kelly for the July survey. The next survey is on 7 August, meeting at 7.30. Margaret Cameron
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June 5
We met at 7am for our survey - just as the fog rolled in! It was 7.50 before visibility had improved enough to start counting - and then it was a beautiful day. The water level is still very high.
There are still relatively few waterbirds - 47 Pacific Black Ducks including 2 little ducklings (plus 9 outside the survey area), 2 Shovelers, 87 Grey Teal (+16 off survey), one Hardhead, and 2 Wood Ducks (+3). Best ducks were 3 Blue-bills! We saw 2 Black Swans during the survey; there had been 2 more earlier but they probably went to Bayliss's Lagoon. There were 90 Australasian Grebes (+2), 4 Darters (+1), 11 Little Pied Cormorants and 6 Little Black Cormorants, and 4 White-faced Herons (+5). While there were only 2 Cattle Egrets present in the survey area, 43 more had been roosting there before we started. Only 2 Masked Lapwings were present in the survey area (+ 22 outside); no Pied Stilts but 7 Black-fronted Dotterels (+2 outside). Other birds present included 3 Buff-banded Rails and 2 Dusky Moorhens, a Black-shouldered Kite and an adult and an immature White-bellied Sea-Eagle.
The Wedge-tailed Eagles recently photographed at a pig's carcass nearby did not appear during the count, and their nest site is too far to walk and the track was too wet to drive. Bob Pardon of the Sporting Shooters Association (who is leading the campaign against the pigs) says the female appears to be sitting on the nest, and there is an immature around as well as the adult pair.
Thanks to Sarah Beavis, Jim Butler, Stephen Dray, Garth Kelly, and Rebecca and Peter Ryan. Margaret Cameron
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May 1 It was a beautiful morning at Daly’s, fine, clear and mild. The water level was still high and we waded through to the 2nd Count site.
Though the numbers of water birds was low, there was still evidence of breeding by Wood Duck, Black Duck and Grey Teal, with a number of family parties present. Hardhead, Shoveler and Australasian Grebe were also seen during the count.
It was great to see 2 pairs of Blue-Billed Duck during the count period at site 1. Little Pied & Little Black Cormorants, Darter, Coot, Moorhen, Black-fronted Dotterel were all present, as well as a large group of Cattle Egret. A very small-Button-Quail was flushed at the edge of the Lagoon, and seen by three observers, though not as part of the formal count. As a result of consulting a Button-Quail expert, we believe the most likely conclusion is a Red-Backed Button-Quail (the other possibility being Red-Chested B-Q). Either bird is new for our bird list for the property and neither appears on the historical list either!
Thanks to Sarah Beavis, Jim Butler, Kim Herbert, Des King, Rebecca Ryan and her father.
Meg Gordon
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An absolutely beautiful morning. The water level is still very high, causing wading between count points - it's still too wet to drive. There were signs of recent pigs.
Almost all the ducks have gone away, presumably out to the flooded west. The most striking feature of the survey was the number of duck families: 33 Plumed Whistling-Ducks included 3 families of 6, 11, and 5 young; 78 Pacific Black Ducks included 5 families of 6,5,5,9, and 6 young, and 51 Grey Teal included 2 families of 8 and 9 young. There was also a Dusky Moorhen with 2 small chicks. Other ducks were 7 Wood Ducks, 5 Shovelers, 3 Hardhead and one Blue-billed Duck (plus 2 more seen outside the survey). Numbers of all waterbirds were down: 14 Australasian Grebes, 5 Darters, 4 Little Pied Cormorants and 5 Little Blacks, one Great Egret, one White-faced Heron (and another after the survey), 4 Buff-banded Rails, and a total of 12 Dusky Moorhens; the only Swamphen and the only Coot were outside the survey. The water is so high that it is very difficult to count grebes, ducks etc in the flooded vegetation round the edges, and there is no mud for waders. We counted only 3 Masked Lapwings though there was a flock of 22 in the grass up the hill. We did not see any Latham's Snipe or flush any while we were wading so they must have left on migration.
The Sea-Eagles were not there - I have not seen them on several recent visits - but we had thrilling close views of 3 Wedgetailed Eagles. The 2 Pelicans which have been there for a while have also left, and the 2 Black Swans were not there, but were probably among the 4 Swans we saw at Bayliss's Swamp nearby. As usual we heard many Brown Quail, and there were lots of Cisticolas and Tawny Grassbirds, and a Pheasant Coucal and a Channelbill.
After the count we had a quick look at Bayliss's Swamp, where the water level is also very high; the flooded vegetation made counting really impossible. Families there included a pair of Grey Teal with 10 ducklings, a family of Plumed Whistling-Duck ducklings, Pacific Black Ducks with 8 juveniles, 2 immature Moorhens, and Coots with 3 chicks. 10 Australasian Grebes were visble but there were probably more.
Thanks to Meg Gordon, Peter Johnson, Kim Herbert, Peter Horler, Garth Kelly and Des King.
Margaret Cameron
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