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| Australian Little Bittern |
This morning at Yandina Creek Wetland on the Sunshine Coast, I recorded three Australian Little Bitterns at widely separated sites. Two birds were heard only, while an adult male showed briefly as it flushed from flooded reeds. This cryptic species is a rarity; I’d heard just twice before at the wetland. To have three birds here on one day suggests the site is increasingly attractive to them.
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| Australasian Darter at the wetland today |
That points to a bigger picture of a wetland that is radically being transformed. Early last century, trenches were dug through what was then sugarcane farm to connect to Yandina Creek and other tidal streams. Gates were built where the trenches met the creeks. They could be opened at low tide to release floodwaters from the cane farms. When farming ceased in the 2000s, the gates fell into disrepair, allowing unchecked inflows of tidal water that created what we now call Yandina Creek Wetland. The area had been natural wetland before the cane farms, so it was being returned to its original state in essence.
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| Wetland today looking towards Mt Ninderry |
The gates were repaired by landowners during controversy over the future of the wetland in 2015, allowing them to drain it. The site was acquired by Unitywater the following year. Unitywater has allowed the floodgates to again fall into disrepair, allowing the site to be inundated again. A bird hide on the public trail off River Road built by Unitywater has been removed as a section of track nearby that once covered floodgates is now a torrent of waterflow.
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| Buff-banded Rail today |
There is today arguably more water in the wetland than there has ever been. This is a mixed blessing. One of the major ornithological attractions of the site was the large numbers of migratory and resident shorebirds it attracted. Extensive mudflats provided ideal habitat. Rare species recorded included Australian Painted Snipe, Pectoral Sandpiper and Broad-billed Sandpiper.
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| Main shorebird area in 2022 |
Those mudflats are substantially reduced now. Much of the area is more-or-less permanently under water, while mangroves have spread rapidly in some places. These images show the main shorebird area as it was in 2022, and as it is today. Still, 55 Pied Stilts were happily in residence there today.
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| Image today taken from the same spot as in the picture above |
On the flip side, there are advantages. Extensive areas of relatively deep brackish water have kept mangroves at bay, while large areas of flooded reed beds are now a major feature of the site. This is good news for the Australian Little Bittern, and explains today’s records. Reports of the scarce Lewin’s Rail are now commonplace at the wetland. Rails, crakes, bitterns, grassbirds and other water and grassland birds will benefit from these changes.
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| Yandina Creek in full flow today |
Access, however, is ever more difficult. The main access trails are heavily overgrown and increasingly inundated. So there are limited opportunities for the birding community to enjoy the site, though usually species of interest can be unearthed without too much difficulty in the area. Recently a pair of Brolgas were spotted along River Road near the wetland, for instance.
Blue Heart, the Unitywater-Sunshine Coast Council-Queensland Government initiative to protect wetlands on the Maroochy River floodplains, is meanwhile powering along. Development activity on several properties acquired by Blue Heart that adjoin Yandina Creek Wetland is being scaled back. Residents previously hostile to the wetlands campaign have moved on, their properties acquired under the Blue Heart program. So the outcome overall remains positive. Ebird list from today: https://ebird.org/checklist/S216154193
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| Pheasant Coucal today |
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| White-faced Heron today |
