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November 23rd, 2020
The Arnold McGill Memorial Lecture Members Meeting
1 December 2020
‘Waterbirds – sentinels of rivers
under pressure’
Professor Richard Kingsford, Director of the
Centre for Ecosystem Science, UNSW Sydney
Freshwater biodiversity around the world is in
long term decline. And Australia, as the driest
inhabited continent, is under extreme pressure.
We have been using waterbirds as indicators of
the pressures and trajectories of change in our
wetlands and rivers, over 38 years, 1983-2020.
I will talk about some of the major changes that
have occurred in our waterbird communities
which are indicating fundamental challenges
for environmental flow management particularly
in the Murray-Darling Basin. Contrastingly, the
waterbirds and the habitats they depend on are
still doing well in the Lake Eyre Basin. These
trajectories of change are borne out by data
from our aerial surveys of waterbirds across
eastern Australia. We have just finished our
2020 aerial surveys, despite major challenges.
These data are delivering on a range of fronts
from understanding the status of different
waterbird species, wetlands and river health
and climate change impacts, underlining
the importance of waterbirds as sentinels of
freshwater biodiversity.
View the lecture here.
September 25th, 2020
New Website for ORAC
The website includes a comprehensive Index of Cases which includes all NSW reports that have been submitted to NSW ORAC and BARC both accepted and not accepted, and also includes known reports of rare species for which no submission was made. Most of these latter reports are shown at the end of the Index of Cases as not confirmed/not assessed but some have case numbers since, in the early days of NSW ORAC, case numbers were sometimes assigned when a sighting was claimed but which was not followed up with a submission. The Index of Cases can be searched by species names, dates, sites, etc and there is also a downloadable PDF version.
The latest revision of the NSW ORAC Review List is on the site as a PDF file and the URR Form is on the site as a downloadable Word document which can be used to prepare submissions to the committee.
Vist the site here: www.nsworac.org/
August 25th, 2019
What birds are these?
Photographer Megan Walton
Leucistic Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Bird Leucism
Find out more?
Photo by Colette Livermore
July 27th, 2017
Bird song: Is it music?
Hollis Taylor takes you on a journey around this question. Be sure to leave time to listen to the songs.
May 16th, 2017
Lake Cowal in the last flood
Report by Malcolm Carnegie,
Photography by Malcolm Carnegie
Projects Manager – Lake Cowal Foundation
Commencing in late June 2016, flooding rains over much of inland NSW through to the end of October 2016 saw the Lachlan River and Bland Creek fill Lake Cowal to a flood peak equivalent to that of 1990.
A flooded Bland Creek looking north to Lake Cowal
Once full, water flows from the north of Lake Cowal near Bogies Island into Nerang Cowal. From here, the Manna and Bogandillon Creeks flow into the Bogandillon Swamp and ultimately back into the Lachlan River.
Black Swans
When full, Lake Cowal covers an area of approximately 13,000 hectares with a length of 21 kilometres by 9.5 kilometres at its widest point, having a maximum depth of 3.5 metres, and taking a period of up to three years to dry mostly through evaporation, provided no significant inflows occur.
During the Spring/Summer/Autumn of 2016/17 a variety of waterbirds took the opportunity to breed in both the lignum areas and fringing river red gums of the lake. Species feeding and/or breeding in the various habitats of the lake included:
- Royal Spoonbill and Yellow-billed Spoonbill;
Royal Spoonbill
- White-necked Heron and White-faced Heron;
- Nankeen Night Heron;
- Great Egret;
- Little Black Cormorant, Little Pied Cormorant and Pied Cormorant;
- Australasian Darter;
- Eurasian Coot;
- Australasian Grebe and Great Crested Grebe;
Red-necked Avocets
Juvenile Nankeen Night-Heron
- Red-necked Avocet;
- Black Swan;
- White-headed Stilt;
- Whiskered Tern;
- Sacred Kingfisher;
Sacred Kingfisher
- Plumed Whistling Duck, Pink-eared Duck, Blue-billed Duck, Chestnut Teal and Pacific Black Duck;
-
Plumed Whistling-Ducks
Straw-necked Ibis
- Australian White Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis and Glossy Ibis;
- Magpie Goose observed and breeding for the first time since 1990.
Magpie Geese
White-necked Heron
Presently approximately 2,000 Australian Pelicans are fishing the shallower northern sections of Lake Cowal with the water level presently relatively stable through the winter months. With no further inflows, the lake is expected to have water in it through to the 2018/19 Summer.
Pelican-rookery; Nimmie-Caira
Pelican-rookery-Feb-17-Nimmie-Caira
Pelican rookery photographs were taken by by Vince Bucello at Nimmie Caira.