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About Bundamba | Jul 9 | Jun 5 l May 1 l Apr 3 l Mar 6 & 8 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.)
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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March 6 was our scheduled survey day for Daly's Lagoon; despite a somewhat gloomy weather forecast we decided to give it a try if possible and 5 of us turned up. For some of the time it was pretty good and we actually went to our first count point, but by the time we had got ourselves organized with our telescopes and clipboard it started to rain again. So we could not count and just did some normal birdwatching - enjoyable if rather damp.
The water level is very high, there is no exposed mud, and there are very few water birds. We spent a very long time identifying our first bird (not a water bird) which was moving actively in foliage; it took 5 people 2 telescopes and a camera to identify a wet juvenile Horsfield Bronze Cuckoo; very educational, the breast bars were not just what Pizzey calls "shadowy" but invisible. (The caterpillars it was actively catching and greedily gobbling were a good clue.) There were actually 2 of them, perhaps the offspring of some of the group we saw in November. Both White-bellied Sea-Eagles were there, at least one Pelican, Shovelers, 2 Blue-billed Ducks, and 3 Great Crested Grebes. The water level in Bayliss's Swamp is also high; there were 16 Plumed Whistling-Ducks, some Shovelers, and a pair of Swans with a new nest. We saw no Stilts anywhere!
Thanks to Meg Gordon, Lindsay Rankin, Peter Johnson, and Garth Kelly for coming out.
As only "one or two showers" were forecast for Monday morning 8 March, but rain returning later in the week, we did the survey on Monday. It did not rain until we had just finished the second count (and not much then).
The water level is very high - running over the weir - so it was a deep wade between count points - the shallow-wading detour to avoid this is so overgrown with long grass that we could not find it!
There were very few ducks; with all this rain in western Queensland many have probably gone there. However it was exciting to see 3 families of Plumed Whistling-ducks (11, 6, and 8 ducklings). Even better were the Blue-billed Ducks, a beautiful male and 2 brown birds, one markedly smaller than the other; I believe we are now safe in saying that they have bred here. Other ducks were Wood Ducks 4, Black Ducks 29, Grey teal 36, and Hardheads 2. Only 7 Australasian grebes but 3 Great Crested. Lots of Cormorants (12 Little Pied, 20 Little Black) 8 Darters and 2 Pelicans still there. 6 Moorhens, 3 Coots, (and one swamphen off survey). No muddy margins at all; the only wader was a flyover Masked Lapwing though there were others further away. No Sea-eagles (a Wedgetail perched in a dead tree); no Swans - the local pair has a new nest at Bayliss's Swamp nearby. During the first count we heard a Little Grassbird calling strongly (and answering imitations of its call) but we did not have time to go and try for a sighting.
Thanks to Meg Gordon, Jim Butler and Des King for a wet walk at short notice! Margaret Cameron
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