Chapter 9 – Migratory shorebirds and the Australian Painted Snipe

AUSTRALIAN PAINTED SNIPE AT THE PROJECT SITE
ABBOT POINT CUMULATIVE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT
The general ecology of the Australian Painted Snipe, including its Australian distribution, habitat,
feeding and roosting requirements are discussed in Section 9.2 and not repeated here.
The three Australian Painted Snipe recorded in the BAAM 2012 wet season survey were flushed in
short and relatively sparsely vegetated edge habitat flooded with shallow fresh water on the southern
fringe of the closed marsh zone. After extrapolation into other areas, BAAM suggested that up to eight
individuals were likely to occur. However, the report also stated that this number was likely to be higher
based on the fact that the species is cryptic and flushes only when approached closely.
The dry season survey recorded 24 individuals with a total estimate of 35 after extrapolation to
unsurveyed areas. This represents approximately 2.3% of the total population of the species and given
that commonly the species is only found in small numbers also represents a significant number of
individuals. The 24 individuals were observed equally in the open and closed marsh areas of the
wetland. It is notable that within the open and closed marsh zones the Australian Painted Snipe was
located very broadly across all areas, from the northern most area of the open marsh to the very
southern edge of the closed marsh.
Figure 9-18 and Figure 9-19 show the locations and numbers of the Australian Painted Snipe found in
the project area for both the wet and dry season surveys.
ECO LOGICAL AUSTRALIA & OPEN LINES 9 - 28