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We left Bankstown Airport and headed southwest to survey Avon and Cordeaux Dams, part of Sydney’s water supply. As usual, there were very few waterbirds on these deep dams, apart from a few cormorants.

From there we headed to the coast and then surveyed Lake Illawarra near Wollongong. As usual, there were hundreds of swans, Silver Gulls, White Ibis with a few egrets and spoonbills.

These were the few wetlands on Survey Band 3, just east of the Great Dividing Range which we soon finished off. We then headed south for 200 kilometres to where Survey Band 2 started, near the town of Bermagui. It was a transit down the coast, and we saw about ten pods of humpback whales, often close to the surface, on their migration south.

The coastal wetlands down here included estuaries and coastal lakes. There were a few Black Swans on the lakes and estuaries. We also saw a few egrets and small cormorant flocks, scattered in among the oyster beds. We landed to refuel at Merimbula Airport.

After refuelling and a break at Merimbula Airport, we headed west, over the Great Dividing Range, and up onto the Monaro Tablelands near Cooma. These can be very busy with all the small lakes, when filled by local rainfall. Not today. There were only a few, all with very shallow water. As always these are productive wetlands, supporting lots of Pink-eared Ducks, Hardheads and the odd Australasian Shoveler and Australian Shelduck.

The video below shows another shallow small lake on the Monaro Tablelands, supporting lots of waterbirds.

Then we turned west to survey Jindabyne Dam which regulates the Snowy River. Like many dams, there were few waterbirds, just the odd Silver Gull. 

Once we had finished this eastern part of Survey Band 2, we headed south to begin our westward journey in earnest, along Survey Band 1, just south of the Gippsland Lakes.

Our Band 1 Survey began on the ephemeral lakes to the south of Gippsland Lakes, near Seaspray on the Victorian east coast. Sometimes there can be hundreds of waterbirds here when the lakes are full. But the lakes were dry today. We then headed towards the estuary just north of Wilsons Promontory. This always has quite a few spoonbills, White Ibis, White-faced Herons and also the odd Pacific Gull.

And then we headed west towards Phillip Island. Surprisingly, the ibis were breeding south of Rhyll Swamp, which is where they usually breed. Today they were just east of the town of Newhaven, with hundreds of Straw-necked Ibis and White Ibis nesting. There were also many more Cape Barren Geese than we usually see. 

We continued west to the Otway Ranges to survey a few of the large dams in the hills which, as usual, had only a few waterbirds.

We then surveyed a few more dams before we came to Curdies Inlet on the south coast where it was blowing a gale with many of the Swans hugging the edges of the estuary.