Day 13, Wangaratta to Sydney

Date: Thursday October 19th 2023

Project: Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey

Observers: John Porter (NSW DPE), Paul Wainwright (SA DEW)

Pilot: Thomas Clark

From Wangaratta we continued eastward, counting along sections of the King, Ovens and Kiewa River valleys. These beautiful floodplains were very green and almost all the dams and floodplain billabongs were full. We found moderate numbers of waterbirds; Straw-necked Ibis, Wood Duck, egrets and spoonbills were common. As we crossed a range of hills into the Mitta Mitta valley we encountered our first problem, heavy fog, meaning we wouldn’t be able to count along the river. After a little back and forth flying we found the fog was thinning allowing enough vision to successfully count along the river. 

Fog in the Mitta Mitta Valley, initially hampering our ability to survey along the river.

Our final wetland in this section was Dartmouth Dam, built in the 1970’s for irrigation, hydroelectricity and town water storage. With a dam wall that is 180m high and deep waters it is generally not an attractive habitat to waterbirds. Today there were very few birds present, which is not unusual.

Dartmouth Dam

Climbing up and out of the steep valleys containing the dam we cross the Snowy Mountains main range near the Rams Head and then onto a count of Lake Jindabyne. The water is lower than we’d expected (c. 75% full) and there are very few waterbirds to be found. After the Lake we continued eastwards and onto the Monaro tableland wetlands. These wetlands are ecologically significant because they provide habitat for a diverse range of subalpine plant and animal species. They support numerous waterbirds, amphibians, fish and invertebrates. Today many of the lakes were full and we found large numbers of waterbirds, some of the larger lakes with several thousand birds. The predominant species and groups were Grey Teal, Wood Duck, Hardhead, Black Duck, Black Swans, coot and stilts. There were dozens of these wetlands to count, taking a considerable amount of time as we criss-crossed the tablelands. Once the task was completed we made a final count on Brogo Dam before heading back to Sydney and finishing this leg of the annual survey.

Snow on the Kosciuzko ranges