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Hervey Bay & Boonooroo – Dec 2017

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Pacific Swift
It was time for what has become an annual camp-out in the Hervey Bay area.Waterways and wetlands were full following heavy rains recently. At Arkarra Lagoons, 3 pairs of Magpie-Goose had goslings in tow and another 6-8 pairs were on nests. Other birds included Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, Fairy Gerygone and Nankeen Night-Heron. Arkarra Lagoons ebird list.


Magpie-Goose
Of interest at Pt Vernon was a flock of 70 Pacific Swifts hawking for insects along the shoreline, with a handful of White-throated Needletails in the mix.


Pacific Swift

Pacific Swift
A Rainbow Bee-Eater here made short work of a dragonfly.


Rainbow Bee-Eater
Good numbers of Greater Sand-Plover, Lesser Sand-Plover and Pacific Gold Plover were present at the high hide roosts at The Gables and nearby Gatakers Bay.


Greater Sand-Plover, Lesser Sand-Plover, Pacific Golden Plover
Grey-tailed Tattlers roosting on rocks demonstrated the pitfalls of identifying tattlers on the basis of habitat, more suited here to their Wandering cousins. Pt Vernon ebird list.

Grey-tailed Tattler
I visited Garnetts Lagoon with local birder John Knight but high water levels meant not much of interest was about, other than a couple of Brown Songlarks.   A large colony of waterbirds was nesting on a lagoon in Ann Street, Urangan, near the Hervey Bay Botanic Gardens. All 4 species of egret were nesting along with a few Little Pied Cormorants and Little Black Cormorants, and large numbers of Australian White Ibis.


Cattle Egret

Intermediate Egret & Cattle Egret

Little Egret
After moving on to Maryborough, Brown Songlarks were present also along Dimond Road, where a pair of Pale-vented Bush-hen were flushed from flooded grasslandVery high king tides (3.6m) made the going tough at the shorebirdroosts of Boonooroo and Maaroom. Large numbers of Eastern Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit were present as usual but there was no sign of the Asian Dowitchers which I found during my last two visits. Boonooroo ebird list.


Bar-tailed Godwits

Eastern Curlews
A flock of 50 Marsh Sandpipers were at Maaroom.


Marsh Sandpipers
Amale Shining Flycatcher was a nice find in mangroves near the jetty at Maaroom. Maaroom ebird list.


Shining Flycatcher

Shining Flycatcher


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