Noosa River Birding – July

Yesterday, I went down to the Noosa River to join the group doing the survey of the birds on the sandbanks at the mouth of the river (see the June 8 post). It was a bright sunny day but the breeze was a bit cold. We saw numbers of Crested Terns, plus over-wintering migratory waders in smaller numbers. Double-banded Plovers from New Zealand are showing some breeding plumage – but it will be darker before they fly back to New Zealand in a month or two.

However, the best sighting of the day was the Beach Stone-curlews. Last year at this time none of these birds had been seen on the Noosa River for some time. This bird is listed as ‘vulnerable’ under the Nature Conservation Act in Queensland, and 'threatened' in NSW. It was about three months after the Noosa Council closed access to one of the larger sand banks for the summer months that we first saw the birds sheltering on this sand bank under some she-oaks. This photo was taken at that time.

Since then we have seen these birds every time we have done a survey on this part of the river. They seem to be using this larger sand bank and also a much smaller one that has a small dense growth of trees and low growing vegetation where they can hide. We are hopeful that the birds will be here permanently and that they may even breed during the summer. The rest of the river is still being used by all the many people who enjoy the Noosa area. This was the photo I took yesterday with the birds sheltering in the shade of some trees.