Day 4, Mt Isa to Rockhampton

Date: Friday 6th October 2023

Project: Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey

Observers: John Porter (NSW DPE), Shannon Dundas (NSW DPI) 

Trainee: Chris Sanderson (Qld DES)

Pilot: Thomas Clark

Today is one of the longest legs of the survey so we decided to get going early and depart in the pre-dawn darkness, heading south to Lake Katherine on the Georgina River north west of Boulia. Lake Katherine (a semi-permanent waterhole) is a bit of an eye opener with thousands of Pacific Herons, Little Black Cormorants and Nankeen Night Herons as well as egrets and Black Ducks. We can see evidence of the cormorants and Night Herons breeding. There must be a huge number of fish and large invertebrates in the lake or nearby wetlands to feed so many waterbirds.

From Lake Katherine we work our way eastward, traversing along the Diamantina channels which are now mostly dry after flooding earlier in the year - there were very few waterbirds.

After refuelling at Winton we continue eastward and find small numbers of birds on Lake Bahcoorah and Lake Dunn. These freshwater lakes can sometimes support thousands of birds but today we find only moderate numbers of Pelican, cormorants, darters, egrets and herons as well as Grey Teal, Wood Duck and Black Duck. 

Surveying Lake Dunn

Our next objective is Lake Galilee, a saline temporary lake that can support tens of thousands of birds in a good year. Today we find the lake almost dry and it has low to moderate numbers of waterbirds, mainly Grey Teal, Hardhead, Wood Duck, Pink Eared Duck, Black Swans, Masked Lapwings and Pied Stilts. Our final stop for the day is Rockhampton.

Lake Galilee

Surveying Lake Galilee