Date: Thursday, October 26, 2017
Project: Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey
The last day of this leg and we spent the usual discussion the evening before about when we should leave. A big front was on its way. Just to reinforce the issue – there was a thunderstorm during the night. We had to go up into the ranges to survey the Ovens, Kiewa and Mitta Mitta Rivers and we didn’t want any low cloud. We decided we had to head off at first light again.
Getting ready at first light to survey the mountains, to the east along Survey Band 2.
Our first wetland system was the King River, just south of Wangarratta. It had a few wood ducks and black ducks on its lagoons, but not many waterbirds.
Surveying the King River with its pockets of thin fog in the early morning.
We then had little surveying to do, just needing to survey parts of the Ovens, Kiewa and Mitta Mitta Rivers, in that order, as we headed east to the large Dartmouth Dam in the headwaters of the Mitta Mitta River. These rivers never have more than a few pairs of black duck and wood duck and sometimes flocks of straw-necked and Australian white ibis feeding on the paddocks near the rivers.
Surveying the Mitta Mitta River up to Dartmouth Dam after light rain
Dartmouth dam, despite its massive size, had no waterbirds, as usual. It is just too deep and unproductive biologically. Building these large dams catches the floods that are so important for the floodplains and the wetlands downstream and the waterbirds show it by not using the large dams because they have no food for waterbirds.
Surveying the edge of the massive Dartmouth Dam on the Mitta Mitta River in the light rain. This is one of the two major dams which regulates the River Murray system.