Day 18, Sydney to Moree
Our mission today is to head north from Sydney and count the waterbirds of the Gwydir, Meehi and Gingham watercourses – which includes an internationally significant Ramsar site.Â
Photo: Gingham Watercourse
Survey details
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Date
Sunday 26th October 2025
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Author
John Porter
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Project
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Observers
John Porter (NSW DCCEEW), Richard Kingsford (ºÚÁÏÍø´óʼÇ)
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Pilot
Thomas Martin
These wetlands support beautiful patches of reedy vegetation dominated by marsh club-rush (Bolboschoenus fluviatilis), water couch (Paspalum distichum) and cumbungi (Typha domingensis).
When inundated the Gwydir wetlands can support tens of thousands of waterbirds, usually with high diversity.
Today we find large numbers of some species - mainly Grey Teal, Black Duck, Plumed Whistling Duck, egrets and ibis with smaller numbers of spoonbill, herons, stilts, Pelicans, darters, cormorants, terns and Brolgas.
A few open sites with low vegetation have large aggregations of whistle ducks, a spectacular sight as they rise up steeply from a small patch of habitat – they really seem to like hanging out in big groups! We also count a few groups of Nankeen Night Herons as they burst out of their tree canopy hiding spots and there are good numbers of handsome Glossy Ibis in the mix.
Recent environmental water releases carefully managed by the NSW government have helped boost the available habitat and encourage waterbird breeding and wetland recovery overall. On-ground surveys have recorded endangered Australasian Bitterns in several places, an encouraging sign for this species.
We ended the day today where we will begin tomorrow, with the repeat count of these important Murray-Darling Basin wetlands in northern NSW.
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Centre for Ecosystem Science
The Centre for Ecosystem Science has a strong focus promoting the viability of ecosystems through understanding ecosystem function, trajectories of change across landscapes and solutions for conservation.Â