Day 23, Bourke to Griffith

Date: Wednesday November 9th 2022

Project: Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey

Observers: John Porter & Shannon Dundas

Pilot: Alex Katopodis

Departing Bourke we head to the internationally recognised Macquarie Marshes, where the Macquarie River has delivered large volumes of precious water into the Marshes, in fact there is so much water we fly transects to sample the area efficiently. We find several large ibis and egret colonies though most of them are in well known colony sites. Away from the colony sites, waterbird densities are very low.

Surveying the Macquarie Marshes.

Surveying the Macquarie Marshes.

Surveying the Macquarie Marshes.

Finishing our counts on the Marshes we travel to Dubbo to refuel before surveying Lake Brewster, a water storage that fills from the Lachlan River, which is currently flooding large areas of its floodplains. Lake Brewster is around 130 percent full and spilling over its banks in several areas. Most of the Lake has low numbers of waterbirds, except there is a huge pelican colony on several islands in the Lake with 7-9,000 pelicans nesting, which is always a spectacular sight!

Surveying Lake Brewster pelican colony.

Surveying Lake Brewster pelican colony.

After completing Lake Brewster we head to Griffith to stop overnight.