A count of Lake Wendouree’s birds last weekend revealed 115 swans, including a family of six very small cygnets.
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These youngsters are very early, but they are three weeks later than a brood of five discovered at the end of May at Paul’s Wetland in Wendouree.
The total of 115 is down just slightly from a count last February.
As expected, the coot was again the most common Lake Wendouree bird with 1543 counted, almost 500 more than four months ago. Many were grazing on shore.
White ibis numbers were down, as they always are at this time of year. Just 21 were counted, which is almost 100 fewer than present in February, towards the end of their breeding season.
Musk ducks remain stable at 29. Black ducks are up only a small amount, to 270, while wood ducks have declined noticeably from 99 in February to 26 now.
Two notable duck species were 17 freckled ducks and 10 Australasian shovelers.
Numbers of both the dusky moorhen and purple swamphen have risen slightly, at 52 and 71 respectively.
There were 102 little pied cormorants counted last weekend, and five little black cormorants.
Non-waterbird counts included just 26 magpielarks and 14 little ravens. Both these totals are lower than expected.
Welcome swallows totalled 94 by mid-morning. The birds rose higher in the air as the temperature rose. The high total proves that swallows do not depart from the lake for winter - or at least early winter.
There were 16 rainbow lorikeets while a lone reed warbler was a winter surprise for this usually-migratory bird. Blue wrens (fairy-wrens) totalled 13.
No house sparrows or great crested grebes were seen in the three-hour count, during which 45 species were recorded.