Flooding Rains in the Upper Darling (1 Viewer)

Looks like the drought has finally cracked in the Upper Darling with great summer rains and now floods in SW Queensland. Hopefully there will be enough water to fill a lot of those ephemeral lake systems such as on the Gwydir, Paroo, Cooper and Narran. Presumably there should also be significant water flowing to Lake Eyre?

I was wondering if the summer rains had resulted in any significant colonial waterbird nesting out in north west NSW so far? Also would the current Queensland floods be too late in the season for the colonial nesters? If it is hopefully the water can hang around long enough for spring.

Might be the breeding event of a lifetime for a lot of the waterbirds and hopefully will help rebuild some of the duck and endemic wader populations.

Further to my previous post regarding the floods in NSW/Qld.

If anyone is interested they should have a look at the link below for NSW Water, which has a summary of the flooding to date under the News Links option, "Flooding in the Barwon-Darling River system". Looks good for the Paroo, Culgoa and Narran floodplains.
http://www.water.nsw.gov.au/

It appears that this may be the biggest flood since 1990. It will be a fantastic opportunity for waterbird breeding come spring time. There was one major Straw Necked Ibis nesting attempt at Narran Lake associated with the intial summer rain, but it failed due to water drying up. Apparently they are now nesting again but with the flood to reach Narran Lake soon, it is likely that the rise in water levels will disrupt that nesting attempt as well. There was also another small egret colony reported on NSW birdline (link below) at Narrabri.
http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSightings.aspx?Birdline=2

It's absolutely amazing the amount of rain you guys have had up there, should be a great year. We've started to get a bit of rain, but we always need more. What I'd really love is a nice influx of water down the murray and flooding along the murray floodplains, who knows how long it's been since that's happened.

Interestingly, there are fewer waterbirds than expected around the Clarence Valley, North east NSW, despite the good rains here. I think a lot of birds are heading west, your way!
Look out for Painted Snipe!

Mannemer, pardon my ignorance, but what is a colonial nester?

Here at my place we have lots of birds nesting after our terrific summer rain a lot of water birds have come back. The pelicans are back too and it looks like their rookery will be even bigger than the one in 2008. This year they are totally surounded by the water of Lake Wyara which isn't full but does have lots more water in it than at any other time in the last decade.

Further west the flood waters are still creeping down the system here is a yarn I found with some great pictures and text from some lucky people who went flying to Innaminka to check out the floods. http://www.theaussieaviator.net/showthread.php?p=63689#post63689 If that doesnt work its in the thread, the lounge, trip reprt, Inland Sea

Cheers Calenso

Hi Calenso,

Nothing too tricky, just birds that nest in colonies. A lot of the water birds will only start to nest when there is a minimum number of the same species around, for example your pelicans. Just saw your other thread which referred to tens of thousands of pelicans, that is a pretty significant colony! What sort of numbers and species of egrets are breeding??

Just had a look on google to see where your place is and I must have driven right past it a few years ago. We spent the night in Eulo which was a bit of a shame when we could have been out in the bush at your place...next time!

Another interesting link for the floods is the one for the Lyndhurst pub when the Strzelecki Creek floodwater arrived and what they did to the culverts.
http://www.lyndhursthotel.com.au/Strz1.htm

My mistake, it's white necked herons and darters that are breeding. And the pelicans. Got a bit carried away there

Looks like the great rains in Central Australia over 2010 have really helped the local birds. The endemic Banded Stilt that has had a hugely successful nesting colony in the saline Lake Torrens in South Oz, with possibly 200,00 chicks produced.

http://worldwaders.posterous.com/largest-recorded-breeding-event-of-australian

Pretty amazing considering the population is estimated at about 200,000 to 300,000 and they haven't had a significant successful breeding event since 2000. A lot of these birds may have therefore been approaching the end of their potential breeding life so hopefully this breeding event can really boost their population.

Looking forward to more reports of a great bird year in central Oz as spring now approaches!