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Out of Innamincka we headed west to start our survey of the Coongie Lakes, along Cooper Creek. It was a stunning morning, not too hot and little wind, ideal for flying and surveying. First up we surveyed floodplain areas that extend between the dunes south of the main channel. 

Some parts of this floodplain were drying back but had lots of small flocks and individual birds, particularly Pacific herons, black duck and yellow-billed spoonbills. They all seemed to capitalise on the highly fragmented nature of these drying floodplains. Other parts of the floodplain still had good flooding.

From here, we crisscrossed to the large floodplain areas on either side of the river as we worked our way north to the main Coongie Lakes. These floodplain areas were full of black-tailed native hens, Pacific herons, grey teal, pied stilts and swamphens.

Then we reconnected with the main channel of Cooper Creek, where there are always small flocks of pelicans and cormorants. 

From here we then started the lakes. These vast areas seemed to go on forever. We surveyed all the major lakes which hold water most of the time but it was just not possible to survey everything out here because there was so much flooding. 

Even though the lakes were large, there were different types of habitats. The shallow water areas were often around the edges of the big lakes, with lots of egrets, Black Duck, Black-tailed Nativehens, Pacific Herons, Yellow-billed Spoonbills and Pied Stilts. 

We worked our way around up to the thirty large lakes which make up the core of Coongie Lakes and then headed east to pick up some flooded areas and also west to pick up the different lakes which are usually dry out here. It resulted in an intricate pattern carved out by our survey plane of our track around the lakes. 

The track log of our plane surveying the Coongie Lakes.

It was interesting to survey one of these shallow lakes, without a name, which was starting to dry back. The change in colour from brown clay to slightly green was obvious. This happens when the always present salt in this landscape starts to clear the water through a process called flocculation. This then allows plants to grow on the bottom of the lake. 

We had perhaps as many as 50% of the total count was on one large lake that was turning salty. There were thousands of coot, Hardhead, Black Swans and Grey Teal. It was a very impressive lake. Tiring to count but exhilarating as well. Just spectacular.

Once we had finished our tortuous route around all of the lakes, we headed south, picking up parts of the floodplain that were drying. 

One of the big human challenges for these wetlands are the wells and their roads and borrow pits built on these amazing floodplains. The Queensland Government has recently implemented a policy to restrict oil and gas exploration and development to outside the floodplains which is a major breakthrough.