Monarch of the Swamp

For cormorants, it’s sink AND swim

Behold! Little Pied Cormorant drying out at Hasties Swamp, Far North Queensland. © Bronwen Scott

Water levels are low at Nyleta Wetlands/Hasties Swamp.

They expose a muddy shore that encourages wading birds to stop by. Stilts and dotterels share the expanding edge with occasional Marsh and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. Dense thickets of Slender Waterpepper (Persicaria decipiens, Polygonaceae) have died back. With the plant’s disappearance, Plumed Whistling-ducks, who liked to snooze among its grassy stems, have moved on to thicker pastures. Wandering Whistling-ducks have replaced them. Wanderers don’t much care for flooded jungles.

Hasties Swamp with a lone Royal Spoonbill. The far shore is packed with birds. © Bronwen Scott

Although the water has receded, it is still deep enough in spots to attract Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants. They chase Northern Purple-spotted Gudgeon (Mogurnda mogurnda, Eleotridae) through the weed. It’s hit and miss. Sometimes they surface with a flapping fish; sometimes with a bill full of stiff, muddy twigs.

While ducks bob around on the surface, cormorants lie low in the water. (Although not as low as darters, who swim with a fully submerged body and head and neck sticking up like a periscope.)