Black-necked Stork, Painted Snipe Killed on Sunshine Coast

Black-necked Stork

A Black-necked Stork and an Australian Painted Snipe have been found dead along the southern shore of Ewen Maddock Dam on the Sunshine Coast. It appears likely that the two birds were shot. I found the stork in the image above this morning.

Black-necked Stork

The carcass was in about the same spot where I photographed this adult female Black-necked Stork on November 6 this year - about six weeks ago. The bird had been seen subsequently by other observers in this area. A couple of weeks after this sighting, Rick Franks reported to me that he found a dead Australian Painted-Snipe in the same vicinity.

Dead Painted Snipe - Picture Rick Franks

There was no indication on the carcass of either dead bird that it had fallen victim to predators and the most likely explanation for the deaths is shooting. Black-necked Stork and Australian Painted Snipe are rare birds in south-east Queensland. My experience with the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection unfortunately is that its Wildlife Management Operations Unit does not bother even to acknowledge receipt of complaints made about the welfare of rare wildlife, let alone act on them.

Today I saw the Black-tailed Native-hen that I found on the lake's southern shore on November 20. It was in the same spot but again was extremely shy, offering no photographic opportunities. I flushed an Australian Little Bittern while kayaking along the fringe of a reedbed; another bittern was seen on November 6 in a different section of the lake.

Spotless Crake

Two Spotless Crakes were also seen today in different places.

Black Kite

I called in at the Nambour turf farm on my way home and was surprised to see 10 Black Kites (normally a rare bird in the region) resting on the turf.

A couple of images from the garden at home over the past couple of days:

Brush Cuckoo

Brown Honeyeater