Goldsborough Birding Report 9 - 11 Sep 2005

by Eric Anderson

Six members from Birds Australia Southern Queensland conducted a third bird survey west of Roma in southern Queensland on the North Australian Pastoral Company property ‘Goldsborough’ from 9 th to 11 th September 2005.

The 77 bird species found were fewer than the 93 and 99 species found during previous surveys in October 2004 and May 2005 respectively. Nest building activity by 7 species was observed. Five new species were found for the first time bringing the total species seen to date to 122.

NAPCO (North Australian Pastoral Company) contacted BASQ in August 2004 to conduct an audit of birds in the recently fenced Dargal Creek area and on the property as a whole.

NAPCO have a number of cattle properties in the Northern Territory and Queensland. They breed cattle in the NT, send them to Channel Country properties to grow them on and then provide some further finishing on good grass properties such as “Gordon Downs” in Central Queensland and “Goldsborough” in the Maranoa region near Roma. From these properties the cattle finally move to feedlots prior to going to targeted markets such as Woolworths.
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The fencing of Dargal Creek was completed in early 2004. The new fence bounds the creek on both sides, which runs through 6.5 km of the property. It was partially funded through the Federal Government’s Australian Envirofund Drought Recovery Round. The fence allows NAPCO to manage cattle access to the creek and prevent degradation that may occur due to grazing, particularly during dry periods. This degradation can lead to increased soil erosion and silting of waterholes downstream.

The area has been listed with the Land For Wildlife Network. NAPCO will still graze the area intermittently to reduce the risk of fire and use it as a laneway to move stock between paddocks.

The first audit was conducted by nine surveyors in October 2004 when ninety-three bird species were recorded in 27 of the 31 ‘recognised’ paddocks on “Goldsborough”. The second audit was done by seventeen surveyors in April/May 2005 when ninety-eight bird species were recorded in 26 paddocks.

BIRD SURVEYING
The Team

Six BASQ members, Don & Bernice Seaton, Grahame & Donalda Rogers and Eric Anderson & Diana O’Connor spent time from 9 to 11 September doing the bird surveys. 

NAPCO was interested to know what effect their management was having on the property’s biodiversity, with a special interest in the avifauna. Of prime interest was the fenced area of Dargal Creek. Also of interest were other paddocks on the property where some remnant vegetation had been retained and areas of woody plants regrowing following clearing were being allowed to regenerate to provide connecting corridors.
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With the small survey team available during this visit bird surveys were mainly confined to Dargal Lane. Recordings in most paddocks were incidental sightings noted while travelling around the property and visiting some of the small dams.

Dargal Lane has an area of 198 ha. For ease of surveying it was divided into 3 approximately equal areas (A, B & C). The remnant vegetation was made up of fringing River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and some Coolibah (Eucalyptus coolabah) with Poplar Box (Eucalyptus populnea) on the flats. The downstream third of the area (A) had denser vegetation due to the ingress of Cypress Pine (Callitris glaucophylla).

Observers walked through the Dargal Lane areas A, B & C for 1.75 hours. If no new birds were found in the last 15 minutes they moved on to a new area. If a new bird was found they continued for another 15 minutes and either moved onto a new area (no new bird) or continued for another 15 minutes. Observations continued until no new bird was found in a 15-minute period. For all other paddocks surveyed the same approach was followed except the initial period of observation was 1 hour (cf. 1.75 hours in Dargal Lane).
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“Goldsborough” is the NAPCO trading name for four amalgamated properties. Three of the properties (‘Lanreef’, ‘Goldsborough’ and ‘Yungindi’) are in one block while the fourth (‘Quiribee’) is separated from this area by less than 2 km. Birding during this visit was done again only on the former three properties. At this stage it is thought we will not survey ‘Quiribee’ in the immediate future.

Thirty-one paddocks are recognised with birds being recorded in 20 of them. These recordings were made from surveys in four paddocks and incidental records collected in 16 of the other 27 paddocks (Table 1) Seventy seven bird species were found on the property with Dargal Lane (46) and the adjacent Zoes (45) recording about sixty percent of the birds found. The only other paddock with reasonably high numbers was Darts with 29 species recorded.
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The 77 bird species found during this survey are listed in Table 2. This is significantly fewer than in previous surveys cf. 98 species in May 05 and 93 species in Oct 04. There were nevertheless five new species recorded during this survey – viz. Brown Quail, Collared Sparrowhawk, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Figbird and Plum-headed Finch. Also during this survey 45 species were not recorded that had been recorded previously. Some of the notable absentees included the waterbirds (Pied Cormorant, White-faced Heron, Little Egret and White-necked Heron), waders (Black-fronted Dotterel and Masked Lapwing), parrots (Red-winged Parrot, Red-rumped Parrot and Budgerigar), honeyeaters (Yellow-throated Miner, White-plumed Honeyeater, Black-chinned Honeyeater and Brown Honeyeater) and the woodswallows (5 species – see Table 2).

No attempt has been made in this report to calculate the frequency in which the birds were seen. This had been done previously as a surrogate for abundance. However like previously the most commonly seen birds included the “black & whites” (such as Butcherbirds, Magpie, Pied Currawong, Crow, Magpie Lark and Willie Wagtail), Crested Pigeon, Galah and “Parrots” (Pale-headed Rosella and Australian Ringneck), Kookaburra, Striated Pardalote, Weebill, Thornbills (Inland, Chestnut-rumped and Yellow-rumped), Honeyeaters (Spiney-cheeked, Striped, Bluefaced and Noisy Miner) and Rufous Whistler.

Nesting activity (building or sitting on nests) was observed being performed by seven species – Collared Sparrowhawk, Galah, Striated Pardalote, Weebill, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Jacky Winter and Australian Magpie.
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The 122 species that have now been recorded on the property is a reasonable list. A brief perusal of the distribution of birds in the “New Atlas of Australian Birds” (RAOU 2003) indicates that a further 73 species might be found on the property, although some 22 of these need water habitats and so could be classed as doubtful. Many of the remainder are on the edge of their distribution and might also be regarded as doubtful. However it could reasonably be expected that the following 20 birds could be found – Stubble Quail, Black Kite, Little Eagle, Brolga, Diamond Dove, Little Corella, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo, Mulga Parrot, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Black-eared Cuckoo, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Southern Boobook, Fork-tailed Swift, Brown Treecreeper, Spotted Pardalote, Hooded Robin, Eastern Yellow Robin, Grey Shrike-thrush, Restless Flycatcher and Dusky Woodswallow.

The smaller number of species found during this survey was most likely a result of the dry conditions. Lower dam levels may contribute to less waterbirds and the lack of any flowering trees no doubt does not help with honeyeaters. The absence of woodswallows is probably a seasonal phenomenon. Another contributing factor could be the significant reduction in the number of surveyors.

It is anticipated that the next survey will be done in 2-3 years time.