On Saturday 4th February Melbourne Water took a group of volunteers on a tour of the Western Treatment Plant at Werribee, (WTP) organised & led by Waterwatch coordinator Richard Akers. & Kim O’Hoy, who explained the workings of the treatment plant as well as describing the incredible diversity of birdlife.
A total of 43 bird species were seen from the bus:
Cape Barren Geese Brolga Black DuckChestnut-breasted Shelduck Chestnut tealMusk Duck Swan GrebeEastern Swamphen Dusky Moorhen CootLittle Pied Cormorant Silver Gull GreenshankRed-necked Stint Pied Stilt AvocetCurlew Sandpiper Pelican Royal Spoonbill Yellow-billed Spoonbill White Ibis Lathams SnipeCrested Pigeon Domestic Pigeon GalahRed-rumped Parrot Black Kite Brown Falcon Peregrine Falcon Swamp Harrier Little EagleLittle Raven Magpie BlackbirdWelcome Swallow Fairy Martin MynahHouse Sparrow Starling MudlarkWilly Wagtail Golden-headed Cisticola The
WTP is roughly the size of Philip Island. It is recognised as one of the prime sites in Victoria for bird watching. More importantly it provides major habitat & refuge for a massive variety of bird species, many of them endangered, some critically.
‘The Western Treatment Plant’s variety of natural habitats provide a refuge for wildlife, including some of the world’s rarest bird and frog species – such as the critically-endangered orange-bellied parrot and growling grass frog.In 1983, the site was declared an internationally-significant wetland for waterfowl under the Ramsar Convention. More than 300 bird species have been recorded at the plant, attracted to the water and food in its permanent wetlands, making it one of Australia’s best places for birdwatching.’ https://www.melbournewater.com.au/water-and-environment/water-management/sewerage/western-treatment-plant; ‘More than 295 bird species have been recorded at the plant, which is recognised at as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and as one of Australia’s best birdwatching sites.’ https://www.melbournewater.com.au/things-do/birdwatching/bird-species-western-treatment-plant
Everywhere we went there were any thousands of Welcome Swallows & Fairy Martins. We found a number of mud bottle-shaped nests of the Fairy Martins (aka Bottle Swallows) beneath the eaves of an isolated pumping station, seemingly in the middle of nowhere!. Richard said that both the waders & swallows had a rich food source in the clouds of midges (Chironomids) that breed in the wetland lagoons. There was also an abundance of Black Kites. Shortly into the tour we saw perhaps 100 or so Cape Barren Geese grazing in an open paddock. Due to two years of La Niña summers much of eastern Australia has a super-abundance of water. In more normal years summers are much drier so water-dependant birds are more concentrated around wetlands. With so much water around the landscape there are so much more sites available for birds to gather hence many wetland birds are elsewhere. However there was still an outstanding abundance of birdlie for us to see. Another highlight was the sighting of four Brolgas, at two separate sites, one of which apeared to be a juvenile.
We saw a snipe that was flushed fro the rushes, disturbed by the passing bus. The species could not be positively identified from with the moving bus but the likelihood was that it was probably a Lathams Snipe as this is one of the sites that is their home while in Australia. Richard stated that it would probably be about to makes its reurn flight to its nesting place in east Asia. The snipe is one of the small wading birds that makes a prodigious migration form southern Australia to north-east Asia. Melton Botanic Garden is recognised as an important site where snipe rest on their epic migration.
‘Latham’s Snipe does not breed within Australian jurisdiction. The breeding range is confined to Japan and far eastern Russia (Higgins & Davies 1996; Naarding 1986).’
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=863;
The Lathams Snipe is the sbject of a lengthy study, the ‘Latham’s snipe project’. https://lathamssnipeproject.wordpress.com/;
‘We’d also love to hear any observations you’ve had of Latham’s snipe: whether that is your first or last record for the year, sightings in unusual numbers, historic records or interesting locations. Contact us via email: b.hansen@federation.edu.au or djdwilson@gmail.com.’
(See below Page 6)
On one small & insignificant-looking mud flat, somewhat smaller than a suburban house block, there was a flock of perhaps 140 or so small migratory wading birds, These were mainly Curlew Sandpipers (recognizable by their long downward- curved bills) & smaller Red-necked Stints. A Greenshank was also seen at another pond. These tiny starling-sized waders undertake unbelieveably long migrations to the other side of the Earth.
Department of the Environment (2015). Conservation Advice:
‘The Curlew Sandpiper is a small, slim sandpiper 18–23 cm long and weighing 57 g, with a wingspan of 38–41 cm. The legs and neck are long. The bill is also long, and is decurved with a slender tip. The bill is black, sometimes with a brown or green tinge at the base. The head is small and round, and the iris is dark brown. The legs and feet are black or black-grey. When at rest, the wing-tips project beyond the tip of the tail. The sexes are similar, but females have a slightly larger and longer bill and a slightly paler underbelly in breeding plumage (Higgins & Davies 1996).’
‘The breeding range of the Curlew Sandpiper is mainly restricted to the Arctic of northern Siberia, including Yamal Peninsula east to Kolyuchiskaya Gulf, Chokotka Peninisula, and also New Siberian Island. They are a passage migrant through Europe, north Africa, Kazakhstan, west and south-central Siberia, Ussuriland, China, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, west Melanesia, Wallacea and New Guinea.’
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=856;
‘The Red-necked Stint is a small Calidridinae approximately 13–16 cm in length and is the smallest shorebird in Australia (Geering et al. 2007). It weighs 25 g and has a wingspan between 29 and 33 cm. The species is characterised by a small head, steep rounded forehead, and long thickset body with an attenuated rear end. Other distinguishing features include short legs, a short, straight (or slightly decurved) bill with a slight bulbous or finely pointed tip. At rest the folded primaries reach slightly over the tip of the tail (rarely short of the tip). In flight all plumages show typical patterns of Stints, with white wing bars, white sides to a black centered rump and upper tail colours. The species has a variety of plumages depending on age, sex and time or year. Calls are important in identification. Sexes are similar, however, breeding adults are distinct from non-breeding adults as well as from juveniles (Higgins & Davies 1996)’
‘The Red-necked Stint breeds in Siberia and sporadically in north and west Alaska, probably from Taymyr region to Anadyr Territory and Koryakland. Though these limits are not well known, they are believed to include: the delta of the Lena River, Kresta Bay, the Chukotsky Peninsula, and the Anadyr Territory Koryakland; possibly around Ust-Yansk, Kurile Island and in Ussuriland; at Point Barrow and Seward Peninsula; possibly St Lawrence Island. (Higgins & Davies 1996). The Lena Delta appears to be a particularly important breeding area (C.D.T. Minton 2002, pers. comm.)’ http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=860;
‘The Common Greenshank is a heavily built, elegant wader, 30–35 cm in length, with a wingspan of 55–65 cm and weight up to 190 g for both males and females. The bill is long and slightly upturned and the legs are long and yellowish-green. In flight, all plumages show uniformly dark upperwing and constrasting white rump extending in a white wedge up the back, whitish tail and tips of toes projecting slightly beyond the tip of the tail. The sexes are alike (Higgins & Davies 1996).’
‘The Common Greenshank breeds in Eurasia, the northern British Isles, Scandanavia, east Estonia and north-east Belarus, through Russia and east to the middle reaches of the Anadyr River, the Kamchatka Peninsula, north Sakhalin and lower Amur River. There is also isolated breeding in northern Ukraine. The southern limit is around 55° N in Europe and west to Siberia around 52° N in eastern Siberia, and around 50° N in the Far East. The northern limit is approximately the Arctic Circle, extending to around 70° N at the Kola Peninsula (Higgins & Davies 1996).’ http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=832;
Broldas on wetland at WTP (middle left)
Cape Barren Goose beside bus
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