Mandora Marsh, north-western Australia, an arid-zone wetland maintaining continental populations of waterbirds

Halse, S. A.; Pearson, G. B.; Hassell, Chris J.; Collins, Peter; Scanlon, Michael D.; Minton, Clive

doi:10.1071/mu04021

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Such events can attract birds from well beyond the region, even beyond WA. This is particularly so when a flood is associated with adverse drought conditions elsewhere and the region can be a significant drought refuge for waterbirds on a continental scale (Halse et al 2005). The coastal plain also provides a migration corridor between the south-west of the State and the Kimberley.…”

Section: Coastal Plainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On other occasions, e.g. Aug. 2000, flocks of 2,600 have occurred (Halse et al 2005). Such utilisation gives the impression of being opportunistic or irregular.…”

Section: Cladorhynchus Leucocephalus (Vieillot 1816) Banded Stiltmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also a rare visitor from south-eastern Australia to fresh waters of the interior, e.g. one collected from a flock of four at Newman sewage ponds on 5-6 Nov. 1981 was from the far south-east of Australia (Johnstone 1982 (Halse et al 2005). These major flooding events do not automatically ensure such large numbers, however, as in Aug. 1999 the corresponding survey recorded only 70 birds.…”

Section: Larus Novaehollandiae Novaehollandiaementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In ones, twos or small parties, occasionally large flocks (800-2,000) and rarely large aggregations of many thousands (e.g. over 7,500 at Mandora Marsh (Halse et al 2005) (Johnstone 1990 Originally a scarce to uncommon visitor from Kimberley (mainly in winter), sometimes breeding. Now uncommon to moderately common throughout the region, usually single, occasionally in small parties (up to 50).…”

Section: Coturnix Pectoralismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Around this time, a series of waterbird surveys by DEC examined the importance of wetlands in the area (e.g. Halse et al 2005). Offshore, various workers gathered data on seabirds (e.g.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Birds of the Pilbara region, including seas and offshore islands, Western Australia: distribution, status and historical changes

Johnstone¹,

Burbidge²,

Darnell³

2013

Rec West Aust Mus Sup

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-The geographic range, status and breeding season are documented for 325 bird species known to occur in the Pilbara, Western Australia, since the first records were made in 1699. The fauna is a mixture of Torresian, Eyrean and Bassian components, along with a variety of seabirds, migratory wading birds and Asian vagrants. The region lies entirely within the arid zone and the overall harshness of the environment means that few species are resident. The richness of the total avifauna (resident and non-resident) is due mainly to the diversity of habitats, especially those on or near the coast. The region is an important refugial destination for a variety of Australian species and includes a range of endemic subspecies and colour morphs. The area from Eighty Mile Beach to Port Hedland saltworks is of international importance for shorebirds and, following cyclonic rains, Mandora Marsh and Fortescue Marsh are of continental importance for waterbirds. The 204 breeding species are mapped, and each species is assessed for possible changes in distribution or abundance since 1900.

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Section: Coastal Plainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On other occasions, e.g. Aug. 2000, flocks of 2,600 have occurred (Halse et al 2005). Such utilisation gives the impression of being opportunistic or irregular.…”

Section: Cladorhynchus Leucocephalus (Vieillot 1816) Banded Stiltmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Larus Novaehollandiae Novaehollandiaementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Coturnix Pectoralismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Around this time, a series of waterbird surveys by DEC examined the importance of wetlands in the area (e.g. Halse et al 2005). Offshore, various workers gathered data on seabirds (e.g.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Birds of the Pilbara region, including seas and offshore islands, Western Australia: distribution, status and historical changes

Johnstone¹,

Burbidge²,

Darnell³

2013

Rec West Aust Mus Sup

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Biodiversity in Wetlands

Gopal

2009

The Wetlands Handbook

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On inferring population trends of mobile waterbirds from aerial transect surveys in variable environments

et al. 2021

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Monitoring waterbird populations in Australia is challenging for reasons of counting logistics, and because population aggregation and dispersion can shift rapidly in response to large spatio-temporal variations in resource availability. The East Australian Waterbird survey has conducted annual, aerial, systematic counts of waterbirds over eastern Australia for almost 40 years. It was designed to monitor waterbird populations using design-based inference though for many species this form of inference appears inadequate in the face of these challenges. Here we develop a state-space model-based Bayesian approach that, in addition to explicitly incorporating process noise and observation uncertainty, uses random effects and rainfall-derived covariates to model the year-to-year variation in the proportion of the total (super) population that is present on surveyed wetlands, and available to be counted. We use this model-based approach to estimate the superpopulation size of 45 waterbird species annually, and model the rate of population increase as a function of antecedent rainfall. The results confirm the strong positive effect of antecedent rainfall on population growth rates for nearly all species, and illustrate that species respond to rainfall differently in terms of habitat use, which influences whether they are present on surveyed wetlands. For many species, the year-to-year variation in the estimated proportion of the population on surveyed wetlands is very high. The results have implications for making inferences on population trends from these data, with the ability to model the year-to-year sampling variation a key requirement before the rate of population increase can be estimated with any precision. This study illustrates how to progress this approach, and infers that under average rainfall conditions, the general trend is for estimated superpopulation rates of increase to be negative, though for only a few species is this occurring with strong belief.

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Mandora Marsh, north-western Australia, an arid-zone wetland maintaining continental populations of waterbirds

Cited by 14 publications

References 26 publications

Birds of the Pilbara region, including seas and offshore islands, Western Australia: distribution, status and historical changes

Birds of the Pilbara region, including seas and offshore islands, Western Australia: distribution, status and historical changes

Biodiversity in Wetlands

On inferring population trends of mobile waterbirds from aerial transect surveys in variable environments

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