MUD Birders visit Conjola Creek

The Milton-Ulladulla Birdwatchers, known locally as the MUD Birders, are an active group making fortnightly trips to local hotspots. Conjola Creek flows into Lake Conjola on the NSW South Coast. It forms winding waterways and lagoons with low lying farmland surrounded by Conjola National Park.

The Eucalypt forests of Conjola National Park surround Conjola Creek farmlands and littoral Casuarinas line the waterways. The picture shows Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Australian Ravens roosting.

A Laughing Kookaburra. Both waterbirds and bushbirds are seen in this area with 36 species counted at last week’s visit. Highlights included a White-necked Heron, numerous Chestnut Teal, Wood Ducks and Pacific Black Ducks, Cattle Egrets, a White-bellied Sea-Eagle, and Red-browed Finches.

The locals got involved in proceedings as well.

A group of Chestnut Teals. This wonderful swamp and pond is fenced and protected by the land-owner. Unfortunately we did not see the Lewin’s Rail recently reported here.

Superb Fairy-wren. Much of this area was under water in recent floods and the land is still water-logged but looking good and green. Recent months have seen small birds return in numbers, especially large flocks of Red-browed finches which completely vanished after the 2019/2020 bushfires. Groups of Superb Fairy-wrens have also reappeared.

The creek broadens as it get closer to the lake. At the other end the lake sporadically opens to the sea at its mouth.

One year and one month after the NSW bushfires

It was just over a year ago that the Currawon bushfire raged through Conjola National Park south of Sydney, burning most of the park. At the survey sites I monitor the rains of the last year have meant a faster recovery than expected, but progress varies greatly depending on the terrain. Where the hottest fires struck in tall eucalypt forest there is a mix of trees recovering through epicormic growth and other trees, usually the smaller ones, that appear to be dead at this stage. In coastal scrub there are large areas where all the trees are dead but the undergrowth is renewing.

This Rufous Whistler is feeding in the epicormic growth on medium sized eucalypts, in an area that is recovering well from the fires.

Bird numbers are recovering but still not to the pre-fire levels. The most noticeable absence is the large honeyeaters, especially the Red Wattlebirds.

The shrubs in this coastal scrub are dead. The thick mat of regrowth is now over a metre high and looking very healthy. The weeds that grew earlier have now been overgrown. A few birds hawk for insects in the regrowth.

In this patch of burnt medium sized eucalypts the regrowth is a mixture of acacias and eucalypt. In places it forms a thick mat that is now up to two metres high. The mix of species seems to be encouraging a wider range of birds.

Conjola National Park – beaches and lagoons

The beaches and lagoons of Conjola National Park are popular holiday destinations, with excellent surfing and swimming. The park includes parts of Conjola Lake and Berringer Lake as well as Swan Lake, Berrara Creek lagoon and Nerrindillah Creek lagoon.

Kingfishers frequent the park’s streams and lagoons. This Sacred Kingfisher patrols a small pond that has formed during recent rains.

The coastal region has four endangered ecological communities: these are the Coastal Saltmarsh, Swamp Sclerophyll Forest, Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest and Bangalay Sand Forest communities. Endangered Hooded Plovers and Pied Oystercatchers nest on the park’s beaches and Little Terns nest at Lake Conjola Entrance.

Pied Oystercatchers are an endangered species in New South Wales. A number of pairs were breeding within the park this year.

Hooded Plovers are closely monitored and nest sites are protected to prevent beach goers inadvertently destroying the nest. Hooded Plovers are highly endangered in New South Wales with the population estimated at only 50 birds in total.

Conjola National Park – woodland and forest birds

Conjola National Park covers 11,060 hectares between Sussex Inlet and Lake Conjola on New South Wales’ south coast. It is on the southern fringe of the Sydney Basin, the underlying rocks are Permian sandstones, siltstones and shales. These support a rich range of environments; coastal scrubs, estuarine, wetland, forest, and woodlands. This area has been home to Dharawal-Dhuruga speaking people for 20,000 years, now represented by the Jerrinja Local Aboriginal Land Council.

A Black-faced Monarch photographed at Red-Head. The Monarch is one of the birds listed by the Australian Government as at risk after the recent bush fires decimated Conjola National Park..

Recent rains have fed streams and the small areas of rain-forest look lush with envigorated Lilly Pillys and Cabbage Palms. Coming with the spring flush has been an increasing number of woodland and forest birds, encouraging after the silent forests of the fires.

At the Davies Road bridge water is flowing again in this often dry tributary of Nerindilla Creek, producing a verdant setting for this Spotted Pardalote and other woodland birds including; White-cheeked Honeyeaters, Eastern Whipbirds, Rufous Fantails, Large-billed Scrubwren, Brown Cuckoo-Doves, Olive-backed Orioles and Black-faced Monarchs.

This White-naped Honeyeater was nesting close to Nerindilla Lagoon.

Variegated Fairy-wren still outnumber their Superb Fairy-wren cousins, a reversal of the situation before the bush fires.