What an abundance of water and wildlife we all had with the floods earlier this year: spiders – especially Golden Orb-weavers galore; butterflies, including several Swallow-tails blown down on the warm northerly airstream; frogs – swimming underwater in the paddock, throughout the wetlands, seemingly everywhere…. filling the air with their somewhat frantic yet elated choruses; praying mantis, turtles and fish; the top of every grass-stalk crowded with water-escaping creatures; and that’s not mentioning (yet) the birds!
So here goes. Being on the flood plains of Mt William Ck. might not have been good for the fences, but it was wonderful for a huge number of a variety of waterbirds. Flocks of Great Egrets, Swans floating over the tops of fences, Herons, Ibis. In lesser numbers, Spoonbills both royal and yellow-billed, a family of Pelicans, Cormorants large, small, pied and black, Brolgas (our usual pair), and many ducks; interestingly, not as many species of duck as in previous years, presumably because of the wide expanses of water available to them; this also applied to the crake and rail groups, with Buff-banded Rails appearing only quite recently. Notable in their absence were the Australasian Shoveler, the Hardheads and the Bush-hens, but the Musk ducks more than made up for this with their exuberant antics.
Special joy came in the forms of an Australasian Bittern who took up resident status on the creek for about 4 months, an immature Nankeen Night-heron who took fright in bright-coloured splendour many times from dams, creek and trees, and a single Bush Stone-curlew found sheltering in the Kangaroo Grass near the dam, having been flushed out of its usual creek habitat. This was the more exciting as we hadn’t heard them in the immediate area. Another special thrill was hearing the Little Grassbird several times amongst the reeds.
The magnificent native grass growth – we have never seen such height on the Kangaroo Grass – helped bring in many species making use of the shelter and food, so the little bush birds, including Quail and Finches, also proliferated. However, the Silvereyes and some of the little honeyeaters allowed themselves to be seen only more recently around sources of water, having had plenty of it last Spring. Now, it’s raining again! and welcome that is.
Note: see the photo page for two of Leigh’s photos.